The Tea Party and the GOP Crackup

Wall Street Journal ^ | Oct. 15, 2013 | WILLIAM A. GALSTON

[neverdem]

Ted Cruz and his followers represent Jacksonian America: angry...

More than a decade ago, before the post-9/11 national fervor set in, Walter Russell Mead published an insightful essay on the persistent "Jacksonian tradition" in American society. Jacksonians, he argued, embrace a distinctive code, whose key tenets include self-reliance, individualism, loyalty and courage.

Jacksonians care as passionately about the Second Amendment as Jeffersonians do about the First...

--snip--

Many frustrated liberals, and not a few pundits, think that people who share these beliefs must be downscale and poorly educated. The New York Times survey found the opposite. Only 26% of tea-party supporters regard themselves as working class, versus 34% of the general population; 50% identify as middle class (versus 40% nationally); and 15% consider themselves upper-middle class (versus 10% nationally). Twenty-three percent are college graduates, and an additional 14% have postgraduate training, versus 15% and 10%, respectively, for the overall population. Conversely, only 29% of tea-party supporters have just a high-school education or less, versus 47% for all adults...

--snip--

Many tea-party supporters are small businessmen who see taxes and regulations as direct threats to their livelihood. Unlike establishment Republicans who see potential gains from government programs such as infrastructure funding, these tea partiers regard most government spending as a deadweight loss. Because many of them run low-wage businesses on narrow margins, they believe that they have no choice but to fight measures, such as ObamaCare, that reduce their flexibility and raise their costs—measures to which large corporations with deeper pockets can adjust.

It's no coincidence that the strengthening influence of the tea party is driving a wedge between corporate America and the Republican Party. It's hard to see how the U.S. can govern itself unless corporate America pushes the Republican establishment to fight back against the tea party—or switches sides.

[neverdem]

The fight with crony capitalists, country clubbers, etc. is overdue. We'll lose some. Get over it.

[LS]

Mead's is a seriously flawed view of Jackson, one of the first real "big government" presidents who was the recipient of Van Buren's creation of the Democrat Party, which a) was CREATED to PROTECT SLAVERY, and b) which ENSURED the growth of government by giving away jobs to supporters.

Jackson isn't the model for anything conservatives do. The Republicans under Lincoln are closer, a party people fed up with slavery and government support of slavery and disgusted with a Whig Party (RINOS) who simply would not deal with the major issue of the day.

[KeyLargo]

WSJ editors are in the tank for corporate interests which makes WSJ an Allie of Obama.

[Responsibility2nd]

Ted Cruz and his followers represent Jacksonian America: angry...

 

Angry? Why would we be angry? Obama - and liberals before him - have lowered our culture into the sewer and our economy into the gutter. They have defiled America and insulted our heritage. Currently they are punishing WWII veterans and have stated for the record they could not care less about funding cancer care for children during this shutdown.

Angry? Us?

No, not really. Not yet. But a time is coming when Obama will send armed forces for us. NSA goons, IRS agents, even UN troops. A time is coming when our private retirement funds will be confiscated - our homes will be entered and our weapons collected. A time of planned chaos and Martial Law.

Then we will be angry. BITS, you Obastards. And it will be theirs.

[Laserman]

“It’s hard to see how the U.S. can govern itself unless corporate America pushes the Republican establishment to fight back against the tea party—or switches sides.”

This is total BS. It is hard to see how the U.S. survives more than 10-20 years if the Tea Party does not succeed in bringing the country back to its conservative roots.

[celmak]

"Nor, finally, is the tea party an independent outside force putting pressure on Republicans, according to the survey. Fully 76% of its supporters either identify with or lean toward the Republican Party. Rather, they are a dissident reform movement within the party, determined to move it back toward true conservatism after what they see as the apostasies of the Bush years and the outrages of the Obama administration."

Exactly! We do far better to hold this course than to separate ourselves and form a new Party. Besides, why waist all the progress we have done since 2010 within the Party? Of course, Cruz and Lee have been the leaders in all the movement within the Repub Party; and they deserve praise!

[KC_Lion]

Don’t forget about Jackson and the trail of tears. Didn’t he outright ignore the supreme court?

[taxcutisapayraise]

Andrew Jackson despised government debt with a bloody passion, along with bloated tax money sucking banks.

Remind your liberal friends about this when they are headed to the annual Democrap Jefferson-Jackson fundraising dinners.

Recommended read about Jackson: “American Lion” by Meacham.

[celmak]

Agreed!

[celmak]

"Don’t forget about Jackson and the trail of tears. Didn’t he outright ignore the supreme court?"

I too do not like the comparison of Jackson to the Tea Party; but then, look who's making the comparison.

[meadsjn]

Andrew Jackson was a pro-slavery, pro-genocide DEMOCRAT — just like the Democrats of today.

[Kartographer]

"Jacksonians, he argued, embrace a distinctive code, whose key tenets include self-reliance, individualism, loyalty and courage. Jacksonians care as passionately about the Second Amendment as Jeffersonians do about the First Amendment."

And that's a bad thing how? Covers me and I am DMAN PROUD OF IT!

[SpinnerWebb]

I consider myself more “Monroean” than “Jacksonian”

[cripplecreek]

Jackson’s handling of the Toledo strip dispute shows what a pure partisan democrat machine type of politician Jackson really was.

I’ll give Ohio the strip if Ohio gives the democrats the election.

[98ZJ USMC]

“It’s hard to see how the U.S. can govern itself unless corporate America pushes the Republican establishment to fight back against the tea party—or switches sides.”

Do what? And just whom would be governing this country....the Blue Helmets?

You don't want to go there. The WSJ can ki$$ my a$$. We don't like corporate interests other than the ability to do business as efficiently as possible and maintaining the conditions for maximum possible employment.

That's it. Anything else is crony bullcrap.

[RitaOK]

A true account, but pretty cold and unhelpful, certainly. The WSJ could have been of some support and they were not.

The Journal has been known to make fine cases of some of our grievances, but when the TP became a force, the Journal went dark.

[nathanbedford]

The author in his assessment of the Tea Party misses one point which reveals that he misses the whole point.

Besides the "apostacy's of the Bush administration and the outrages of the Obama administration", besides the "existential threat of Obamacare", besides the demographic threat of amnesty, the country is hurtling toward a fiscal meltdown. The Tea Party, as an expression of the conservative movement, believes viscerally that spending is out of control, that the debt is at the cusp of being irretrievable, that the unfunded liabilities probably can never be paid, and, at a time when all patriots in decency would work to curb spending and save ourselves, the existing administration actually wants to precipitate a crisis.

The failure to defund Obamacare is but a metaphor for the failure to bring the nation's fiscal house in order, a metaphor for the failure to apply the brakes before we plunge over the precipice. All of the other considerations, while important, are but symptoms of a government which is verging on autocracy and which has no intention of saving the system. In fact, this administration is committed ideologically to the destruction of the system as it was constitutionally created.

Whether one quotes the adage, never let a crisis go to waste, whether one points to Cloward and Piven, whether one cites the plotting's of Saul Alinsky, one must conclude from any of these sources that a crackup is exactly what the elites of the left want.

Therefore, it does not matter whether big business is for or against the tactics employed by The Tea Party. Moderates, big business, most of the unenlightened Democrat party constituency also known as low information voters, are all fixating on irrelevancies. The endgame is there to be seen.

The author has not seen it.

[econjack]

...these tea partiers regard most government spending as a deadweight loss.

I agree. If you read Charles Beard's, An Economic Interpretation of the Consitution, you'll discover that the Constitution has two primary areas of concern: 1) policing of property rights (e.g., a legal system), and 2) the provision of social overhead capital (e.g., those things deem socially necessary but without a private market, like a standing military). Now, compare that with what you see today and you find a common thread: social serves are expanded to keep the politicians in office. And to me, the GOP no longer fights this trend and is lock-step with the liberals. I say: Throw them all out and start over.

[BlessingsofLiberty]

This fight is about corruption. Obama, the socialists in both chambers of the Congress and the treacherous “so-called” Republicans.

The Tea Party Republicans stood strong against them. I am proud of them. Have no doubt...the pressure was intense.

Ted Cruz and the Tea Party caucus in the House were courageous. Watch the vote....the traitors in our Govt. have been exposed.

This is a dark day in our history, we are living through dark days for our Country. They can raise the debt limit into infinity....until one day there will be no options.

Pray for the USA.