Much ink has been written about the rise and fall of the TEA Party. It started off as a rebellion against what it saw as overreaches by Government, especially the Federal govt, starting slowly with Bush (“We have to destroy the Free Market in order to save it”) and then on steroids after Rick Santelli’s famous rant that he didn’t want his money to go the the irresponsible and force him to pay their mortgages. Ordinary people REBELLED against the profligate spending, a government that no longer respected the Constitution, and the distortions it was making in their lives and how the Rule of Law was being broken. It finally came down to three main points:
- Fiscal Frugality
- Constitutional boundaries
- Free Markets
While the movement attracted a lot of Libertarians, Democrats and Independents who were realizing, too, what was going on and more importantly – what WASN’T happening. That said, the bulk of people in the TEA Party turned out to be Republicans who were not only mad at the Democrats but also their own Party for not behaving and standing up for what it said it did – they didn’t walk the talk.
And they took to the streets, the rallies, the town halls, and their politicians’ offices. And don’t forget, the voting box. They tried to work within the Party and at first, brought a lot of energy and strength to the 2010 election. But once that power was gained for the Party, the Party powerful started to strike back as they saw their own power being lessened by the newcomers that rightfully said “hey, we just helped you out big time – we have earned a seat at the table. It was clear that the Republican insiders then started to mobilize to stop this “insurgency” as they did see the TEA Party as a very real threat to their ruling of the Party. This was summarized by disgraced former US Senator Trent Lott turned high powered DC lobbyist:
Any possible shred of doubt remaining in anybody’s mind about former Senate GOP leader Trent Lott’s true allegiance have now been definitively removed: Lott is a paid tool of the Washington Establishment who hates the Tea Party and all other insurgents who have had it with politics-as-usual.
“We don’t need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples. As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them,” Lott told The Washington Post in an incredibly revealing story.
The Taxed Enough Already folks – certainly hated by the Democrats who are diametrically opposed to Individual Freedom and choice and are all in for that foreign political theory of Socialism / Communism (aka, they can’t answer the question of “What is the difference between a Socialist and a Democrat” and that the Communist USA Party has endorsed them). But no one thought, certainly I didn’t, that these ideologically aligned folks would be treated by the Republicans in almost the same way that the Democrats did.
Certainly the TEA Party has had its losses since but also it’s wins as well as we can still see the spirit of the TEA Party in a lot of the newer Republican leaders in reaching the US House and Senate and having real impact at not just the local levels but the national level as well. But given the outright rejection and then denigration of the TEA Party, people who wanted to be doing the right thing became cynical and angered. And that anger festered and turned into thoughts of revenge and MORE in the vein of “throw them ALL out”. Years, now, of that kind of treatment and seeing the Establishment Republicans acting like the Junior Party of the Democrats an no longer defending and voting for Conservatism turned them away.
Thoughts of “Burn it all down” came to the fore – and people in that mindset saw, in Trump, a vessel for their Party ambivalence, angst, and anger. And so, the Republican Party has ended up with Trump.
And with the revelations of the last few days, the Establishment Republicans are running away from Trump, their titular head of the Party. Much wailing, gnashing of teeth, and pulling out of hair has ensued. And well deserved. Why?
They had millions of people willing to be their stree level foot soldiers, their ideological political brothers in arms, that only wanted them to return to their roots and fight that foreign political theory that is bringing this country to ruin. They were willing to give of their hearts and minds, their talents and their time, to turn the nation around.
And the Republicans kicked them in the teeth.
So they have turned on the Republicans. And gave the GOP Trump. Just desserts given what has happened. They threw their chances away by telling those that really could have helped to go pound sand. Instead, they have, as it turns out, thrown sand into the GOP Prez gearworks. In essence, the GOP committed self-induced seppuku and didn’t realize it then but they are now with Trump drawing the knife. Morons all – the lure of power overcame their philosophy.
Couldn’t happen to a better Party (and you can take “better” that both ways).
