Why the Tea Party’s Waning, Not Winning: It strayed from its original focus on economic issues

National Review ^ | 03/05/2014 | Michael Tanner

[babble-on]

No, it’s a race issue.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

I completely disagree. Just like everyone else, this guy is reading things into the Tea Party. How does he know they strayed from fiscal restraint???? Their original goal was to CUT SPENDING. They did not take libertarian positions on social issues. They probably had a mix of views on social issues. Some people who labeled themselves “Tea Party spokespersons” tried to leverage the brand to push their own issues, but there never has been a formal “Tea Party” that sets positions on issues. The Tea Party was an unorganized protest movement in the best sense of the phrase. It was average people who were tired of Democrats and Republicans spending like there was no tomorrow and then wringing their hands and looking at the floor when people told them they needed to cut back spending. This article is complete BS.

[sickoflibs]

Its be fine if they won on the social issues, but we keep getting these embarrassing routs like over that recent AZ law and the birth control mandate play in 2012.

When your team keeps heading for the hills under massive fire its time to recalibrate and try a different attack approach.

[Paine in the Neck]

But it did begin with the taxpayer bailout and economic issues.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that. Santelli's rant galvanized some people but the movement predated him.

[ilgipper]

You are correct. It is a battle against big government which is far bigger than taxes and bailouts. Inspired by the citizens revolt leading up to the revolution, it is about protecting our god given rights and freedoms, which extends across all spectrums. I can understand it not being overly focused on abortion but the current judicial attack on marriage and the immigration issue are front and center.

Also believe message discipline is important to success but not exclusion of any issue outside of taxes and spending.

[shepardspie33]

that was one of the great sound bites ever. I watch CNBC in the late afternoon just to see what Santelli says, although most of the time its a more technical review of the market.

[tatown]

As a Texan that tried to follow the senate primary as closely as I could, I will say that the biggest problem was too many senate candidates. They simply drowned each other out. The fact that Cornyn had so few ads played to his advantage. The quiet guy ended up being the loudest voice in the race so to speak.

[Atlas Sneezed]

According to the most recent Gallup poll, just 30 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the movement, the lowest level in its history. This seems particularly unsettling when polls also show that the public still overwhelmingly supports the Tea Party objective of limited government. In fact, a recent Gallup poll shows a record 72 percent of Americans feels that big government is the greatest threat to the future of the country. Voters who feel that way should be flocking to the Tea Party in droves.

They are not.

---

The label means nothing. All that matters is that the people support candidates who uphold the principles.

[RebelTXRose]

Here in Kaufman County the Tea Party candidates ALL either won out right or will be in the run-off in May. That includes TWO State seats - one Senator and one Representative.

[wildbill]

There is a tendency on this site for some folks to think their opinion which may be on the extreme side of an issue is the majority opinion of the country—and to denigrate anyone who has a different opinion as some kind of false conservative.

I call it the Pauline Kael syndrome. She was an editor of the NYT who said,”I simply don’t understand how Nixon got elected. No one I know voted for him.”

[RebelTXRose]

With all the issues related to Constitutional liberty, it’s like playing whack-a-mole for which one is at the forefront.

[Rusty0604]

Good enough. We all need to work together for the future.

[Pietro]

"arch-social-conservative Ken Cuccinelli"

This from the "conservative National Review?

The short list of groups that want to see the Tea Party fail is:

Dhimmicrats

RINOs

Big Unions

Big Banks

Multinational Corps

Wall Street

The Chamber of Commerce

The ENTIRE Beltway media, including NR & WSJ

And of course the media/government complex

W/ this array of enemies its amazing, simply amazing, that we're still in the game.

[Zionist Conspirator]

NRO has gone down the drain.

[Rusty0604]

Sometimes in the AM they will get Steve Liesman to purposely irritate Santelli. Probably the network trying to improve their ratings.

[staytrue]

“The original issue was those brave citizens sitting on the US-Mexican border with binoculors, working to stop the invasion of the US.”

No, the teaparty really got moving when Obamacare passed.

[onyx]

RUSH:  You know, it's interesting to try to pinpoint exactly when the Tea Party began.  Now, the modern incarnation of the Tea Party as we understand it is a television phenomenon, and that was Obamacare.  Obamacare and the stimulus, the debt and the spending, is what motivated people who were already thinking in a different way. Some people might think that the Tea Party's origins really could be traced back to Clinton. 

There was a group back in the 1990s -- and they still exist. There was a group in the 1990s that were malcontents, renegades, and off the mainstream plantation of conservatism as articulated by the party.  Those were the people that were the early participants in the website Free Republic .  They were known as Freepers.  They were... I say all this in a positive sense.  I don't want any negative connotation.

[sharkhawk]

^^^^
Count me in on that. I agree.

I agree too. Too many people here want someone who agrees with them 100%, and if they don't they would rather have a liberal communist, that someone who agrees with them 90% of the time.

[shepardspie33]

Oh yes, I enjoy Liesman vs Santelli. Sometimes they just let them go at it while the others just watch and chuckle at how much they dislike what the other says.

[joe fonebone]

stand by for attack from the social(ist) conservatives in 3...2...1...