The Daily Telegraph’s Damian Thompson:
[T]he Tea Party wasn’t the Religious Right – at least, not at first. When Christian fundamentalists jumped on board, that’s when public support began to bleed away.
There’s something to that, I think, not least because of some of the candidates that emerged as a result, like DeMint’s O’Donnell in Delaware back in 2010.
THATS RIIIIGHT! If I think back to when I first heard of the movement, I was all about it, then it WAS co-opted by the TriCorner hat wearing Jesus freaks!
Thanks for reminding me of that! I DID stop admitting I was leaning Tea Party when I felt crowded out by Grannies for Jesus.
So sad this day….so so sad.
The Republican Party and the Tea Party faction of it have excellent points and positions regarding taxation, govt and labor union relations, and national defense. The national party needs to stop the take over by the religious right…they are making the party a joke and undermining credibility with these ridiculous moral crusades and neanderthal comments. Please get back to real republican principles and let the discussion be about things that the government should really be working on.
I dunno. The 47% comment by Mitt, his FEMA remarks, the popularity of the auto bailout in Ohio that he was against, etc.
Even sans the social issue stuff, the ‘McGovern coalition’ that helped win the election and that Rod Dreher is talking about at The American Conservative finds the right’s purely economic/size and scope of government agenda pretty abhorrent.
This squeamishness is what killed the party. “Oh no, I can’t be seen next to ‘him’, what will the ‘liberals’ (who we don;t like anyway) think of us!!!!!!”
Yeah guys, pussyassness is the way forward, lemme know how that works out.
I think it started trending down last year during the budget stalemate. The high water mark for the Tea Party was the 2010 election. The catalyst was Obamacare and high deficits in general.