Posted on 01/30/2012 6:38:36 PM PST by neverdem
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Newt Gingrich's fast Florida fade is the latest indication that the Tea Party is losing its grip on the GOP, with the establishment poised to triumph once again.
An official endorsement Saturday night from last year's Tea Party standout, Herman Cain; an all-but-official backing from longtime Tea Party darling Sarah Palin; and the support of an increasing number of Tea Party officials around the country have not lifted Gingrich back over Mitt Romney in the Florida polls. That weakened clout has been accompanied by the Republican establishment's full-throttle charge at Gingrich's past -- to great effect with the primary here just one day away.
It’s a stunning twist of fate for the GOP, which just 18 months ago was mired in intraparty battles that gave rise to the grass-roots movement, and which had been desperately seeking anyone but Mitt Romney in the presidential race to satisfy its hard-right turn. Still, if Romney wins here on Tuesday and goes on to clinch the nomination in the coming weeks or months, it may not settle the question of whether he has quieted the Tea Party faithful heading toward the general election.
Its various favorites have failed to take hold. Michele Bachmann was ultimately not seen as credible, Cain was forced out of the race over charges of sexual harassment, and Rick Perry couldn’t pass muster through the debates.
Though Gingrich has embraced the Tea Party -- and many of its leaders have hugged him back -- he doesn’t fit the movement’s mold. The Romney campaign knows this and has had no qualms about highlighting that fact.
From former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, the GOP presidential nominee in 1996, to Sen. John McCain, the standard bearer in 2008, a growing number of Republican “insiders” have blasted...
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
I don’t dismiss your remarks at all. Nor will I condescend to welcoming you back to a fight you never left. Just watch and see what happens. Just watch.
“but, that won’t be enough.”
You mean like how the GOP cannot win without us? Sorry, the threat that Obama is worse leaves me unmoved. Id rather save 2016 for another try than to vote Romney.
People with power don't threaten to do anything.
I am on board with any emerging Party that challenges the elites and seeks to restore the Constitutional Republic.
To you reelecting Obama is power. lol.
rat...It's the new conservatism.
A better question is "Is the GOP losing the support of the Tea Party?"
We have the power to make the GOP sink or swim. If they don't believe us, look at what happened to the Democrats last election. I'm ready to sink the GOP if they run Romney. Dead! Dead! Dead!
“I guess they GOP will have to move further left to capture a majority”
If you are in that mindset, You would vote for Obama, the GOP would have nothing to offer you. The GOP HAS no room to move left. What will they be, a low rent version of the dems? If you liked that position, there would be little to dislike about Obama.
And while nobody expected them to roll over, it is just as unreasonable that they think they can ignore every single thing we stand for, yet still expect our vote as their birthright.
You are correct, people with power don’t make threats. They stay home in November or write in. The GOP needs a lesson in power.
What should it be doing right now that is not happening? Is there an unknown candidate that everyone should be rallying around? We have two remaining conservative candidates, both with positives and negatives, a weirdo libertarian and a liberal democrat with the full force of the party establishment. I am not sure what shuld happening that is not. Some are buying Romney as an ABO candidate, others championng newt, and others Santorum and Paul. There is no unifying candidate, unfortunately.
You give up too easily.
The GOP has lost it’s grip on the Tea Party, is more like it.
The Rattlesnake is coiled and ready to strike.
The 2 parties don’t quite get that we consider ourselves backed into a corner with time running out...
It doesn’t matter how many or few we are, it’s a matter of resolve.
It was only the biggest electoral swing in modern history. What a weak showing last year.
The GOP has lost it’s grip on the Tea Party, is more like it.
The Rattlesnake is coiled and ready to strike.
The 2 parties don’t quite get that we consider ourselves backed into a corner with time running out...
It doesn’t matter how many or few we are, it’s a matter of resolve.
We Are Many! Recall Yamamoto...
Romneycare with mandates, gay marriage, assault rifle bans, abortion, muslim friendly,,,
it’s your new conservatism. lol
Thank you.
Its essence, the idea and the spirit, is still vibrant.
But more stealthy now
"Joy to Thee Me---Confusion to our enemies."
Impotent people let others make decisions for them. A Obama win in November will cause both parties to move left.
Written by Common Tator
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/589263/posts?page=24#24
The two parties have been in control since 1860. They have made every rule in such a way that third parties are always counter productive. Third party efforts, if effective, always elect the cadidate they like least. The direction of our nation and its laws can be changed. But the only way that works is to take over one of the two major parties. The Republican party of Teddy Roosevelt was pretty liberal and the Democratic party of that time was pretty conservative. The Deomcrats were dominated by the South where states rights, low taxes, and very limited federal goverment was quite popular. It was the Roosevelt type liberals of the north that dominated the Republican party in the first two decades of this century. But by the mid 1920’s conservatives had taken over the Republican party too. As someone said their was not a dimes worth of difference between the two parties.
But the left under the mantle of FDR took over the Democratic party. Using party loyalty they got FDR elected president. Twenty years of FDR made the conservative Democratic party into the liberal Democratic party.
In the South the consrvative Democrats started to move to the Republican party and in new England the liberal Republicans started to move to the Democratic party.
For the first 30 years of the last century the Progressive party tried to make an impact. It Failed. It tried to move the nation to the left and it failed. FDR figured out how to do it and made the Democrats a Leftist party.
But third party people for the most part are afraid to try to move into control a major party. They don’t think they could succeed. But the fact is no movement goes from a party with one or two percent support to a party with over 50 percent support in an instant. What they do is take votes from the major party most like them, thus electing the major party least like them. The third party never gets enough votes to win. If the party least like them fails, that results in the dominance of the party most like them and it takes their voters back. That takes them out of the game completely.
But the splinter parties never learn. They keep thinking that they can go from next to nothing to over 50 percent in one election cycle. It has never happened. It never will.
What does a major party do when a splinter party takes a few million votes from them? They look at the few million the splinter party got and say we need all those plus some of the other party to win. Geting the splinter party votes will make some of our voters move to the other party. So that is not a solution. They conclude that the thing to do is to move closer to the other major parties positions. What would happens in real life if the libertarians ever get enough votes to take down a Republican, the Republicans will just move to the left as a result. They will figure getting 6 percent of the Democrat votes would be enought for a Republican victory while getting 100 percent of the libertarian votes would not.
The solution to change is what it has been for 140 years. Get in one of the existing party and change it to your liking.
Barry Goldwater tried it in the Republican party and failed. Reagan did it in the Republican party and succeeded. Back when the Demcocratic party was still dominated by Conservatives, Reagan was a Democrat. But he saw the liberals were well on theway to total control of the Democrats, so he became a Republican and took that party away from the Jerry Fords and other left leaning Republicans.
Will libertarians be astute enough to try a wining approach? Not likely. Third parties just never seem to learn.
“The tea party is dead.”
You’re wrong. Check out the huge conservative turnout in South Carolina. The lib Romneybots got their butts kicked.
that is certainly my suspicion!
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