A Tea Party President in 2012?
by Brian Risman BA LLB LLM, Publisher and Founder
Is Sarah Palin going to be the next President, leading the new Tea Party into power? Will a Tea Party / Republican /Conservative victory win both Houses of Congress, plus State Houses and Legislatures? Will the Tea Party move worldwide?
Political change can occur when you least expect it. It can occur slowly, and then suddenly grows into a tidal wave of discontent seemingly overnight.
Such is the case with the populist rebellion in the United States of America, called the Tea Party. Named after the famous Boston protest against taxation in the early stages of the American Revolution or War of Independence, the new Tea Party is similarly a revolution from below. It cannot be ignored, given there are now more Tea Party members in America than Democrats or Republicans. Amazing!
That is why we have just seen in the Kennedy-Democratic State of Massachusetts a victory in the Senate Race by a Tea Party-sponsored Republican candidate.
So what does this new majority party in the United States stand for? And why did it develop in the first place? And where does it go from here?
Let us start with why the Tea Party developed.
The people of the ‘fly-over’ States were, for a long time, being ignored by the Media on both Coasts. The Media Gurus laughed at these seemingly backward people. Yet these people frustrated the Media with their landslide election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984. Clearly, the Media was not being listened to – in fact, with every attack on Reagan, this so-called Middle America saw those attacks as aimed at them, and backed Reagan more and more strongly with each Media assault.
Yet the Media still did not get it.
Not every issue was a political one. Even entertainment became part of this rebellion. In the early 1970s, Middle America complained bitterly about the replacement of classic Hollywood movies with controversial decadent films promoting extreme liberal agendas. Television similarly moved away from family-oriented entertainment towards shows that incessantly attacked American values. The people fought back, creating their own family-based entertainment, frequently based on moral or religious precepts.
Yet the Media still did not get it.
Government itself was extremely unresponsive to public opinion and trends. ‘We’ in the ‘beltway’ – the slang for the Washington D.C. world, based on the name of the circular highway surrounding the capital – knew what was best for Americans. In fact, Americans did not know what was best for Americans as far as they were concerned. Evidence of this division came chiefly, but not exclusively, from ‘judicial activism’, which promoted liberal agendas that were no where near the national consensus. Republican politicians were faster than their Democratic compatriots in tapping into this discontent. But even they did not truly understand the discontent growing among the people, since they still clung to liberal elitist precepts.
Hence the liberal elite still did not get it.
And so the Tea Party started. What does the Tea Party stand for?
The one thing that is clear in the Tea Party is the diversity of views and membership. But what has become evident is that there is a strong feeling that government has been taken from the people. And the people want the government – and the country – back. The Tea Party is not being listened to – it is still being talked at. And that results in even further discontent in America, and even further growth of the Tea Party.
The Tea Party has, to this point, been building at the lowest levels of the Republican Party. They have taken over as Precinct Captains, the ones who toil to get the vote out – and who choose the leaders of the Party. But that is not say that the Republican Party and the Tea Party are the same. In fact, there is a growing conflict between the Republican establishment and the Tea Party people. It is clear that the Tea Party is winning – they overthrew a too liberal Republican candidate in the New York 23rd Congressional District back in November 2009, and recently won the impossible victory in the Kennedy Senate seat in Massachusetts.
So where does the Tea Party go from here?
Although it is moving into the Republican Party positions, the Tea Party is still very much its own entity, even holding its own political convention next month.
It is increasingly likely that the shift in November 2010’s mid-term elections will not really be to the Republicans, but rather to the Tea Party candidates under a Republican banner.
And then there is Sarah Palin. It is clear from the Liberal hand-wringing that Sarah is a major concern to the Washington elite. Her memoirs topped the bestseller charts, and she is now a major presence and influence in the media. A self-defined ‘rogue’, she was not really the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate in 2008. Rather, she was the first Tea Party candidate for national office. She set the standard, and garnered the publicity for the growing grassroots movement.
Is Sarah Palin going to be the next, and first Tea Party President come 2012? With the growth of the Tea Party, anything is possible. Look at Massachusetts.
Is there the prospect of a Tea Party worldwide? We have seen signs of populist rebellions in many countries, such as the Orange Revolution. Again, anything is possible. Look at Massachusetts.
Brian Risman