Posted on 12/30/2013 2:08:47 PM PST by xzins
A government and sociology professor at Harvard writes that the Tea Party is more likely than not to "win in the end" in an age when Americans are becoming more removed from Washington and distrusting the federal government and their elected officials.
"Tea Party forces will still win in the end," Theda Skocpol writes, unless moderate Republicans can defeat them. Skocpol concedes that the Tea Party "will triumph just by hanging on long enough" as Americans are getting fed up by "our blatantly manipulated democracy and our permanently hobbled government."
The article, "Why The Tea Party Isn't Going Anywhere," was first published in the journal Democracy, and later reprinted in The Atlantic.
Despite the fact that Democrats, the mainstream media, and the Republican establishment again were predicting the "demise of the Tea Party" immediately after the government shutdown ended, Skocpol doesn't believe so.
"But we have heard all this before," she writes. "The Tea Party’s hold on the GOP persists beyond each burial ceremony."
Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson published a book in 2011 that "showed how bottom-up and top-down forces intersect to give the Tea Party both leverage over the Republican Party and the clout to push national politics sharply to the right."
"At the grassroots, volunteer activists formed hundreds of local Tea Parties, meeting regularly to plot public protests against the Obama Administration and place steady pressure on GOP organizations and candidates at all levels," they found. "At least half of all GOP voters sympathize with this Tea Party upsurge."
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
No soup for you!
Bump
That's what illegal immigrant legalization is all about.
Establishment liberal republicans want liberal democrat victories in order to defeat the conservative tea party.
Makes perfect sense — liberals wanting to defeat conservatives.
Unfortunately, republicans have been trained to think that establishment republicans are on the side of conservatives.
Nothing could be further from the truth. If anyone, we have more in common with libertarians.
2014 Midterms, who will vote in the masses? Very Very Angry Americans! the freeloaders will just stay home and forget that it’s election night.
“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” - Mark Twain
I was thinking of that...thanks for posting it.
Just a reminder for all those disgusted with the Republican party and stay independant to keep their hands clean, the fight that really counts is going on within the party. If you stay outside, you have limited ability to affect anything.
BUmp!
'Cause the leftists are all going to move to Cuber?
While I understand your logic, and there is a soundness to it in a way, the Tea Partyers are not necessarily republican. Some are. Some aren’t.
But they will vote for a conservative candidate if the republicans manage to dish one up.
Ditch Mitch.
they want them leftist cigars
Can’t say I give a rat’s rear end what somebody oozing out of Harvard thinks...
I like PR that advances a cause I’m interested in.
/johnny
Conservatives can still form a winning coalition of themselves comprising conservative republicans, Reagan democrats, blue collar Perot conservatives, independents and libertarians.
Conservatives don’t need establishment republicans. In fact, GOP-e types will do an about face and claim “Me Too!” when they see Tea Party conservatives pulling ahead. They are Beltway mercenaries at core; just in it for the money.
But if the US Chamber of Commerce follows through and runs attack ads on Tea Party challengers to the amount of $50 million, the coalition is going to need a lot of solidarity to weather the storms ahead.
If @SenTedCruz gets off his haunches as Prof. Hollis suggests and demand Obama be held accountable for #Obamacare. Obama must pay for his fraud and deceit. Do not stand for “not as long as I am President” arrogance. He committed fraud and should be prosecuted. The fraudulent act should be declared a nullity.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.