To Party Or Not To Party
January 27th, 2010 by
Kevin
A week ago, Scott Brown won his Senate seat in Massachusetts and the entire political landscape changed. It was a major defeat for Obama, who personally campaigned for Coakley and it was a major setback for Democrats, whose agenda is now threatened. Meanwhile conservatives and Republicans have celebrated and started prognosticating an insanely bright future for the GOP. There is a big problem with that….the Democrats weren\’t the only losers last Tuesday, the Republican Party was also big loser, and in an potentially fatal way.
It\’s extremely likely that this election was a rejection of the Obama agenda. Both candidates made health care one of the foremost issues. Obama and other high-level Democrats campaigned for Coakley. Even in deep blue Massachusetts the voters rejected her. Polls continue to show that the voters are against the Democrat\’s healthcare bill, they\’re against Cap&Trade, they\’re worried about the deficit, and they want smaller government even if it means fewer services. The conservative agenda is clearly popular right now, it\’s a gimme for the Republicans right?? Wrong. Polls show conservatives simply don\’t trust Republican legislators, and they have a lot of reason to.
But Tea Party activists have to eventually side with Republicans don\’t they?? No, not at all, and Scott Brown\’s election proved it. Scott Brown got his volunteers from the Tea Party movement. He raised over a million dollars a day via the internet. His campaign existed largely outside the Republican Party structure. Republicans always promise lower spending and smaller government, but when they get to Washington they feed the government hog instead. When Scott Brown promised the same, the public, especially the Tea Party activists responded with great enthusiasm. The Scott Brown campaign didn\’t just exist outside the Republican Party structure…..it THRIVED.
The Tea Party is the most popular movement in the country, far outpacing both the Democrats and Republicans. And now they\’ve proven they can do more than just stand around and make noise in town halls and in web forums on the internet. They can make or break an election, even in hostile territory. The Republican Party hasn\’t yet figured out that they need the Tea Party, but the Tea Party movement is slowly waking up to the fact that they don\’t need the Republican Party.
Instead of going through usual Republican Party process of creating an electoral platform, the Tea Party folk have instead bypassed the party. Instead of a top-down Contract TO America, they\’ve banded together and through grassroots methods are creating a Contract FROM America. In fact, internal divisions within the Tea Party movement, have at least partially been from mistrust of RNC affiliated groups.
The default position of the Tea Party movement appears to be that they choose to go it alone and the window is rapidly closing for that to change. The Republican Party needs to find something to offer the Tea Party movement, or else they may very well find themselves in the minority, along with the Democrats. Upcoming caucuses and primaries are the best, and probably last chance, for the Republican Party to accomplish that.
[Crossposted at True North]
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Posted in 2010 Elections, Political Mumbojumbo, True North | 5 Comments »