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CQR Tea Party Movement

CQR Tea Party Movement

Res earc her Published by CQ Press, a Division of SAGE CQ www.cqresearcher.com Will angry conservatives reshape the Republican Party?

he Tea Party movement seemed to come out of nowhere. Suddenly, citizens angry over the multi- billion-dollar economic stimulus and the Obama ad - T ministration’s health-care plan were leading rallies, confronting lawmakers and holding forth on radio and TV. Closely tied to the Republican Party — though also critical of the GOP — the movement proved essential to the surprise victory of Republi - can Sen. in Massachusetts. Tea partiers say Brown’s Tea kettle held high, a Tea Party activist dressed like a election proves the movement runs strong outside of “red states.” Revolutionary War soldier rallies protesters in on April 15, 2009. was among several But some political experts voice skepticism, arguing that the Tea protests held in cities around . Party’s fiscal hawkishness won’t appeal to most Democrats and many independents. Meanwhile, some dissension has appeared

among tea partiers, with many preferring to sidestep social issues, I such as immigration, and others emphasizing them. Still, the move - N THIS REPORT ment exerts strong appeal for citizens fearful of growing govern - S THE ISSUES ...... 243 I ment debt and distrustful of the administration. BACKGROUND ...... 249 D CHRONOLOGY ...... 251 E CURRENT SITUATION ...... 256 CQ Researcher • March 19, 2010 • www.cqresearcher.com AT ISSUE ...... 257 Volume 20, Number 11 • Pages 241-264 OUTLOOK ...... 259 RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE N SILVER GAVEL AWARD BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 262 THE NEXT STEP ...... 263 TEA PARTY MOVEMENT CQ Re search er

March 19, 2010 THE ISSUES SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS Volume 20, Number 11

• Does the Tea Party rep - Tea Partiers Running in MANAGING EDITOR: Thomas J. Colin 243 resent only a narrow seg - 244 25 States [email protected] Most are Republicans running ment of the population? ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR: Kathy Koch • Will the movement for House seats. [email protected] reshape the GOP? Most Tea Partiers Have ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Kenneth Jost • Does the movement 245 ‘Unfavorable’ View of attract conspiracy theorists? STAFF WRITERS: Thomas J. Billitteri, Obama Marcia Clemmitt, Peter Katel Many also think Obama has BACKGROUND raised . CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Rachel Cox, Sarah Glazer, Alan Greenblatt, Reed Karaim The Original Populists Tenets of the Tea Party Barbara Mantel, Patrick Marshall, 249 President Andrew Jackson 248 Excessive government spending Tom Price, Jennifer Weeks feared financial elites’ power. and taxation are motivations. DESIGN /P RODUCTION EDITOR: Olu B. Davis ASSISTANT EDITOR: Darrell Dela Rosa Right Turn 251 Chronology 250 Populists’ handling of race Key events since 1892. EDITORIAL INTERNS: Dagny Leonard, Julia Russell placed them on the politi - Tea Partiers Take Aim at cal right. 252 FACT-CHECKING: Eugene J. Gabler, Health Reform Michelle Harris Movement plans more town The ‘Silent Majority’ hall meetings. 250 President Nixon courted the “great silent majority.” Shines at 254 Tea Party Convention Enduring Appeal Some see her as a potential 253 Populist themes remained party leader. popular following Nixon’s A Division of SAGE New Coffee Party Drawing resignation. 256 PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER: Supporters John A. Jenkins Effort to confront tea partiers gathers strength. CURRENT SITUATION Copyright © 2010 CQ Press, a Division of SAGE. At Issue SAGE reserves all copyright and other rights herein, The Election Test 257 Does the Tea Party move - unless pre vi ous ly spec i fied in writing. No part of this 256 Tea Party candidates seek ment represent another publication may be reproduced electronically or 58 seats. Great Awakening? otherwise, without prior written permission. Un- au tho rized re pro duc tion or trans mis sion of SAGE copy - Political Realities right ed material is a violation of federal law car ry ing 258 Massachusetts Sen. Scott FOR FURTHER RESEARCH civil fines of up to $100,000. Brown is a Tea Party hero CQ Press is a registered trademark of Congressional but also a pragmatist. For More Information 261 Organizations to contact. Quarterly Inc. Third-Party Option CQ Researcher (ISSN 1056-2036) is printed on acid- 259 Bibliography free paper. Pub lished weekly, except; (Jan. wk. 1) Tea partiers aren’t likely to 262 Selected sources used. start a new party. (May wk. 4) (July wks. 1, 2) (Aug. wks. 2, 3) (Nov. wk. 4) and (Dec. wks. 4, 5), by CQ Press, a division The Next Step 263 of SAGE Publications. Annual full-service subscriptions Additional articles . start at $803. For pricing, call 1-800-834-9020, ext. 1906. OUTLOOK To purchase a CQ Researcher report in print or elec - Citing CQ Researcher tronic format (PDF), visit www. cqpress.com or call Short Life? 263 Sample bibliography formats. 259 866-427-7737. Single reports start at $15. Bulk pur - Some observers see a chase discounts and electronic-rights licensing are also short life for Tea Party. available. Pe ri od i cals post age paid at Wash ing ton, D.C., and ad di tion al mailing of fic es. POST MAST ER: Send ad dress chang es to CQ Re search er , 2300 N St., N.W., Suite 800, Wash ing ton, DC 20037. Cover: AP Photo/John Bazemore

242 CQ Researcher Tea Party Movement BY PETER KATEL

liberal Democratic lion, Ed - THE ISSUES ward M. Kennedy. 2 “The Tea Party movement t’s lock and load time, a had a lot to do with that elec - pumped up tion,” says John Hawkins, pub - I told several thousand at - lisher of the online Right Wing tendees at the Conservative News. “[Brown] had millions Political Action Conference and millions of dollars flood - (CPAC) in last ing in from the , which month. “We’re in the middle showed people getting ener - of a war. We’re fighting for gized and excited.” And some the hearts, minds and souls on the left acknowledge that of the American people.” the Tea Party campaign for Forget politeness, the St. Brown could have stirred sup -

Louis-based radio host and Tea r port among Republican and e Party activist told the equally c GOP-leaning independents. n e

energized crowd. “It’s all p “At a time of heavy reces - S

t

about amplifying your voice.” r sion and joblessness, giving e b

Conservatives, she said, should o banks a rankles peo - R /

declare often and loudly, “ ‘I s ple across the spectrum,” says e g

don’t like .’ ” a Joseph Lowndes, a University m I

And as for the president’s of Oregon political scientist. y t supporters, said the 31-year- t “A lot of Brown supporters e

old homeschooling mother, G might have been in that camp.” “Make them uncomfortable. Republican Scott Brown celebrates in Boston on Jan. 19, But a vote for Brown 2010, after winning a special election to fill the seat of . . . Attack, attack, attack. the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Tea Party activity doesn’t equate to Tea Party Never defend.” typically occurs in Republican territory — “red states” membership, he adds, because Many tea partiers may favor — in the South, West and Midwest. But Tea Party the movement’s sharply de - a softer approach, but Loesch’s activists also cite Brown’s upset election in fined conservative political per - take-no-prisoners intensity Massachusetts, considered among the bluest of spective doesn’t travel well blue states, as indicative of their broad appeal. reflects the dynamic and tri - across the left-right divide. “A umphant spirit emanating lot of people who are inde - from the country’s newest political trend, A major wing of the movement, Tea pendents and disenchanted with Obama which arose in early 2009 in reaction Party Patriots, has helped set up a aren’t going to be tea partiers,” he says. to economic stimulus legislation, cor - fundraising arm, Central, in the The decentralized and loosely de - porate and the Democrats’ Washington suburb of Burke, Va. Its fined Tea Party movement takes its health insurance reform effort. president and CEO is Thomas, name from the — Indeed, as CPAC’s enthusiastic em - wife of Supreme Court Justice the 1773 protest against British taxa - brace of Loesch and other tea partiers . She appeared on tion. is a national makes clear, the Tea Party movement the same CPAC platform with Loesch organization that claims to is on the cutting edge of a conserva - and two other movement members. support more than 1,000 community- tive surge that aims to undercut, or Obama’s “hope and change agenda based Tea Party groups around the even defeat, the Obama administration certainly became a leftist agenda pret - country. The Patriots-organized Tax Day and what foes call its big-government, ty fast,” she said. “We saw what they protests last year drew 1.2 million peo - socialist agenda. Tea partiers are also try - were doing, and it was just a big ol’ ple, says Tea Party activist Jenny Beth ing to push the national Republican Party power grab.” 1 Martin of Woodstock, Ga., a founder to the right, with Tea Party-affiliated The movement proved itself a po - of the group. She and her husband candidates this year running in GOP litical force to be reckoned with in the lost their home and filed for bank - primaries for at least 58 congressional special Senate election in January of ruptcy in August 2008 after their busi - and state offices, including three gover - Republican Scott Brown for the Mass - ness failed. They owed $510,000 to the norships. ( See map, p. 244. ) achusetts Senate seat held by the late (IRS). “We’ve

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speakers at a Nashville Tea Party Tea Partiers Running in 25 States convention in February included, aside At least 58 candidates — mostly Republican — in 25 states in the from former Gov. Sarah Palin, upcoming election say their beliefs align with those of the Tea Party Web news entrepreneur , movement. Most are running for House seats, but three candidates who said Obama may not qualify for the presidency because of his possi - are in contention for governorships. ble foreign birth. Another speaker, States with Tea Party-aligned Candidates in ex-Republican Rep. of Upcoming Elections — known for his anti - immigrant stance — urged voter liter - acy tests, a discriminatory practice Wash. N.D. N.H. Mont. Minn. Vt. rooted in the Jim Crow South. “Be - S.D. Wis. Maine cause we don’t have a civics literacy Ore. Wyo. Mich. N.Y. Mass. test to vote,” Tancredo said, “people Neb. R.I. who couldn’t even spell ‘vote’ — or Ill. Pa. Nev. Ind. Conn. Colo. W.Va. say it in English — put a committed Kan. Mo. N.J. Ky. Va. Del. socialist ideologue in the Calif. 5 Tenn. Md. named Barack Hussein Obama.” Okla. Ark. N.C. Ariz. N.M. D.C. For some on the left, the Tancre - Miss. S.C. Ala. Ga. do and Farah appearances — along Hawaii La. with xenophobic and racist signs and slogans that have popped up at other Fla. House Tea Party events — represent the core Senate Alaska Candidates by Party identity of the movement. “Tea Partiers have unjustly and unfairly targeted the Republican 38 House and Senate Latino community to further their Democrat 1 Libertarian 5 House and Governor political agenda,” say the organizers of Sources: CQ Weekly , Other third party 6 a new community called Politics1 Independent 8 Cuéntame (“tell me about it”). 6 Others insist that anti-immigrant xeno - been hit by the financial crisis and the Grassroots anger at political and phobia represents only a fringe. “I was recession,” Martin told , just business elites has fueled political concerned that the anti-immigrant peo - like other “everyday .” 3 movements on both the right and left ple would try to hijack the Tea Party Martin was especially angered by throughout history. A prolific right- movement, and they have tried,” said the federal bailouts of ailing banks and leaning blogger, University of Ten - , president of Ameri - financial institutions by the outgoing nessee law professor Glenn Harlan cans for Tax Reform and a longtime Bush administration just before the Reynolds, even views the Tea Party Washington-based conservative who 2008 presidential election and then of as continuing another tradition — the favors liberalized immigration policies. the auto companies in 2009 by the in - Great Awakening evangelical religious “Not succeeded to date.” 7 coming Obama administration. After movements that have emerged peri - In any event, most Tea Party ac - her husband’s temp firm failed, “We odically throughout American history. tivists stayed away from the $549-per- started cleaning houses and repairing “It’s a symptom of dissatisfaction with person Nashville event, organized by computers to make ends meet,” she politics as usual,” he says. the group , a social- told Fox News, while big But Republican Indiana Gov. Mitch networking site focusing on social is - that were struggling got billions in aid Daniels is more cautious. “I wouldn’t sues that some other Tea Party ac - from the federal government. “We overestimate the number of people in - tivists discourage; among Tea Party were saying, these businesses they were volved,” he told The Times , Nation’s “strategic partners” is Farah’s bailing out, there’s already a [bank - also offering faint praise to tea partiers’ WorldNetDaily. “It wasn’t the kind of ruptcy] process in place,” she said. “net positive” effects on the party. 4 grassroots organization that we are, “We’ve gone through it. It sucks and Indeed, doctrines supported by so we declined to participate,” said it’s not fun, but its part of how the some Tea Party followers would give , a cofounder of Tea system works.” pause to many politicians. Featured Party Patriots (TPP). 8

244 CQ Researcher The TPP network, which represents the movement’s mainstream, steers Tea Partiers Have ‘Unfavorable’ View of Obama away from social issues and instead More than three-quarters of Tea Party supporters have unfavorable has forged a consensus largely on eco - nomic matters: Government spending views of President Obama, compared with a third of all Americans. should be cut, government should be Forty-four percent of tea partiers think erroneously that the adminis - limited and the free-market system tration has raised taxes, compared with 24 percent of all Americans. should prevail. ( See box, p. 248. ) Specif - ically, members argue, the federal gov - ernment shouldn’t expand its role in Views of President Obama Think the Obama a health-care system that they say al - administration has already: 80% ready provides adequate care to the 80% 60% 53% 70 poor and the elderly. 50 44% 46% “Even if this bill were to have me 60 50 40 insured tomorrow, it’s still not the right 39% 40 34% 30 24% thing to do for America,” says 25% 30 20 TPP activist Martin. Although she and 20 12% 11% 9% 10 her husband lost their health cover - 10 2% age when his business failed, they op - 0 0 Favorable Unfavorable Undecided/ Raised Lowered Kept taxes pose pending health-care legislation haven’t heard taxes taxes the same on the grounds it would add to the federal budget. “There are a lot of Feelings toward government Tea Party identification people in this movement who are un - in Washington by region: employed. They don’t want to burden 60% 53% 40% 37% future generations.” 35 32% 50 46% 45% 29% Martin shares a background in Re - 30 24% publican politics with many other Tea 40 25 23% 22% 29% 19% Party activists — and a critical attitude 30 20 16% 15 toward the party. “There’s no question 20 17% 9% 10 the GOP has lost the mantle of fiscal 10 5 responsibility and ,” 0 0 writes John M. O’Hara, a former Labor Enthusiastic/ Dissatisfied Angry Northeast South Midwest West satisfied Department staffer in the George W. Bush administration. But, he adds, “The GOP is the most likely breeding ground Think the Obama Does the Tea Party reflect for the fiscally responsible constitu - administration favors . . . : most Americans? tionalists the Tea Party movement — (Among those who’ve and America — craves.” 9 35% 33% 30 heard of Tea Party) : A rally O’Hara helped to organize 25% 24% 24% Don’t know last year in Washington was part of a 25 22% 18% series of protests that launched the move - 20 17% 15 21% Yes ment. A cable TV moment provided the 10% 10 33% mobilizing spark: On Feb. 19, 2009, 5 CNBC business reporter No 0 launched a tirade against a plan by The poor The The rich Treats all 42% the new Obama administration to help middle equal class homeowners facing foreclosure. “How about this, President and new administration?” Santelli yelled * Percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding All Americans from the floor of the Board or respondents who didn’t answer Tea Partiers of Trade. “Why don’t you put up a Source: CBS News/ NY Times Poll, Feb. 11, 2010 Web site to have people vote on the

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Internet as a referendum to see if we Does the Tea Party represent the South and Midwest. Like the GOP really want to subsidize the losers’ only a narrow segment of the itself, Tea Party event attendees are over - mortgages.” 10 population? whelmingly white. But Tea Party ac - Santelli went on: “We’re thinking of Some Tea Party activists are quite tivists also cite Brown’s upset election having a Chicago Tea Party in July. All candid about what they see as the in Massachusetts, considered among the you capitalists that want to show up movement’s base. “They’ve been lis - bluest of blue states, as indicative of to Lake , I’m gonna start or - tening to for years, their broad appeal. ganizing.” Within four days, Santelli’s they’ve been railing against the main - “A lot of Democrats voted for Scott rant had been viewed 1.7 million times stream media for years, they’ve been Brown,” says Reynolds. “And he had on the CNBC Web site. 11 voting Republican for years,” J. P. Freire, massive Tea Party support. That is at O’Hara and others used and a editor and Tea least an indicator we’re moving be - other social-network links to find com - Party activist, said at a Washington panel yond the red state-blue state thing.” patriots and launched their rallies on discussion in February organized by While labeling the Tea Party a red- Feb. 27. Protesters showed up in more the America’s Future Foundation, state trend “isn’t entirely false,” he says, than a dozen cities — includ ing At - which trains young conservatives in the number of “disaffected Democrats” lanta, Fort Worth, Nashville, New economics. “I’m talking about mom- is growing. “I actually think you’ll see York, St. Louis, San Diego Omaha and and-pop suburban dwellers.” this spread to an insurgency in the Tampa. 12 Later events included a Sept. Indeed, some key Tea Party issues Democratic Party.” The theory is that 12 march on Washington promoted by do coincide with key Republican po - the Tea Party appeals to a bipartisan conservative Fox News commentator sitions: The federal budget deficit is sense that Congress and the White . out of control; the administration’s House are listening only to powerful But fledgling activist health-care proposal is unnecessary lobbyists and not looking out for the — who as “Liberty Belle” — and fiscally risky; the $787 billion stim - interests of the average American. beat them all to the punch. The 30- ulus represented a grave threat to the But non-tea partiers view the move - year-old Republican convert organized nation’s economic health. ment as fitting comfortably within the a Feb. 16 rally in her hometown, lib - Only three Republican senators Republican fold. “Given the pretty fer - eral , against the Obama ad - voted for the stimulus. And party lead - vent that exists in this ministration’s economic stimulus bill, ers have been arguing ever since that group, it is unlikely that there are a which she dubbed “porkulus.” 13 the stimulus didn’t fulfill Obama’s significant number of Democrats in it,” Carender’s playful approach — she promise to jumpstart the economy and says John Sides, a political scientist at distributed pulled pork at the event create and save jobs. Celebrating Re - George Washington University who stud - — seems distant from Loesch’s mili - publican gubernatorial victories in New ies political polarization. “You may be tancy at the CPAC convention. So dis - Jersey and Virginia last November, GOP able to find people who say they voted tant, in fact, that the conservative Wash - Chairman condemned for Obama, but I don’t think that is ington Examiner issued a warning that “an incredibly arrogant government in the central tendency of the movement.” echoed the remarks of some in the Washington that has put our country, In fact, he argues, the concentra - Republican establishment. “The ap - our freedoms and our economy at risk tion of conservatism in suburbs and proach [Loesch] suggests . . . could with unprecedented spending.” 14 smaller cities will make it difficult for easily be mistaken for a rallying cry Tea partiers insist they don’t just the Tea Party to build strength in big for angry yelling,” the paper said. “She blame Obama and the Democrats for urban centers. But the movement could must realize that when it comes to excessive spending. “There was a loss play a big role in areas that are up making change, it’s not about who of enthusiasm for Republicans” trig - for grabs. “You can imagine that ac - yells loudest but who actually makes gered by deficit spending, says - tivism by the Tea Party could have a people want to listen. Claiming that ger and law professor Reynolds, who measurable impact on ‘blue dog’ [con - the tea parties and conservative ac - co-founded Porkbusters, a political ini - servative, usually Southern] Democrats tivists have declared war on the left tiative that attacked Republicans as well in close races,” he says. only serves to marginalize the right.” as Democrats for allegedly wasteful Indeed, a cofounder of the TPP As the tea partiers gear up to chal - spend ing. “It was one of the things points to the movement’s popularity lenge politics as usual in the 2010 con - that cost them Congress, and cost them outside of red-state America. “Three gressional elections later this year, here the whole 2008 election.” of coordinators in New York are some of the questions being raised Tea Party activity typically occurs in City are Democrats,” says Georgia ac - about the movement: Republican territory — “red states” — in tivist Martin. And she says she’s ready

246 CQ Researcher for the emergence of a New York ously undercut if it evolved into a third everything,’ not realizing that people in - politician of either party who sup - political party — historically the route volved in these parties are human be - ports Tea Party principles but who is taken by new movements that want ings and susceptible to compromise,” too socially liberal to win an election to broaden the national debate. Most said Kelly Jane Torrance, literary editor in her state. Tea Party activists argue against such of the Washington-based American Martin spent years as a Republican a move. “If you create a third party Conservative magazine. Party volunteer, heading Sen. Saxbe you guarantee that it’s going to split The absence of a Tea Party insti - Chambliss’ reelection campaign in her Republican votes and guarantee so - tutional presence makes its absorption county. But she deplored his vote for cialist Democrat victories,” says Right by professional politicians inevitable, the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Pro - Wing News publisher Hawkins. He she added. “People seem to need a gram) bill — the emergency “bank predicts that the Tea Party instead will charismatic leader or organizer or an bailout” legislation enacted in October effectively take over the GOP. institution, which is why I think the 2008, signed into law by George W. To be sure, the prevailing view in movement is basically being eaten up Bush a month before Obama was elect - liberal circles is that the Republican by the Republican Party,” she said. ed. She has renounced completely par - Party has already moved far to the right. But some Tea Party activists argue tisan activity and doesn’t exempt the Even some senior Republicans are de - that promoting their ideas within the GOP from criticism on big spending. livering much the same message. GOP is essential if the movement is to But she acknowledges, “I think the “To those people who are pursuing avoid being marginalized. “There’s got Republican Party is probably the one purity, you’ll become a club not a to be communication with the political most Tea Party people more closely party,” Republican Sen. party establishment,” says Karin Hoff - align with.” of told , a man, a veteran Republican activist from historian Washington-based online , Lighthouse Point, Fla. “The Democratic Michael Kazin says the movement’s es - last November. He spoke following the Party has done everything to ridicule pousal of strict market principles de - failed attempt by Conservative Party the movement,” she says, while the termines the Tea Party’s political make - candidate to win a con - GOP platform “matches what the grass - up. “It’s hard to think of too many gressional seat in upstate New York, roots movement feels.” people who voted for Barack Obama replacing the Republican incumbent, Hoffman orchestrated a Washington who really care about the budget deficit.” who was judged by the party estab - meeting this February between 50 Tea Kazin, who specializes in lishment as too liberal. (Democrat Bill Party-affiliated activists and Republican and other social movements, draws a Owens won the seat.) Chairman Steele. Hoffman says she’s distinction between the Tea Party and “Those people who are trying to on guard against the danger of Tea other grassroots upsurges. “Social move - embrace conservatism in a thoughtful Party activists becoming nothing more ments aren’t as connected to one of way that fits the region and the state than Republican auxiliaries. the main parties as this one seems to and the district are going to do well,” “I’ve not been happy with how be. I know that leaders of the Re - Graham said. “Conservatism is an asset. Republicans have behaved,” she says, publican Party are trying to appear Blind ideology is not.” 15 citing the reduced-price system for more moderate, but clearly if you have Some Washington-based conserva - prescription drugs under tens or hundreds of thousands of peo - tives question the possibility that any that President Bush pushed through ple whose views you would like to movement based on political principles in 2003. “We don’t need an increase use, you don’t push them out.” can exert deep and lasting influence on in government.” the political process, where fulltime par - Disillusionment with Bush is com - Will the Tea Party movement re - ticipants tend to act as much — or more monplace among tea partiers, who shape the Republican Party? — from self-interest as from ideology. tend to have been Bush voters in 2000 It remains to be seen whether the Tea A movement that channels itself into and 2004. The shift in their support Party can foment national political change. a party inevitably suffers the dilution of — or, alternatively, their view that he But some political observers think the its ideas, a conservative writer argued abandoned principles they thought he movement is well-placed to drive the during the February panel discussion shared with them — underscores the GOP rightward, especially on economic in Washington organized by the Amer - potential obstacles to reshaping na - policy issues. Others say it’s a fringe fac - ica’s Future Foundation. “Politics is a tional parties. “Even with a relatively tion that ultimately will lose steam. profession, and the temptation, once diffuse organization, they can have in - One outcome is fairly certain: The we’re in charge, is to say, ‘We’re going fluence just because of visibility, and Tea Party movement would be seri - to fix everything, we’re going to solve can pull conventions and rallies,” says

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of grassroots movements of any stripe. Tenets of the Tea Party A classic case is the takeover in the 1960s of the New Left by self-styled The Tea Party Patriots organization says its impetus comes from revolutionaries, who cited Communist “excessive government spending and taxation,” according to the Vietnam and as economic and TPP’s Web site. Here are the group’s three core values: political models. Conservative movements, for their “Fiscal Responsibility — Fiscal Responsibility by govern - part, have always faced the danger of ment honors and respects the freedom of the individual to spend the identification with far-right defenders money that is the fruit of their own labor. . . . Such runaway deficit of segregation and, more recently, with spending as we now see in Washington, D.C., compels us to take those who question President Obama’s action as the increasing national debt is a grave threat to our legitimacy on the grounds of his sup - national sovereignty and the personal and economic liberty of posed foreign birth — a notion that has been laid to rest. future generations. Tensions over ideas tinged with Constitutionally : We, the discredited notions about race and members of the Tea Party Patriots, are inspired by our founding conspiracies surfaced publicly at the documents and regard the Constitution of the to be the controversial Tea Party convention in Nashville. Speechmakers included supreme law of the land. . . . Like the founders, we support states’ Tancredo, the former Republican rights for those powers not expressly stated in the Constitution. As the House member from Colorado. He government is of the people, by the people and for the people, in all advocated voter-literacy tests — a other matters we support the personal liberty of the individual, now-illegal procedure that was part within the . of segregation law in the Deep South designed to deny black citizens the Free Markets: A is the economic consequence of right to vote. And WorldNetDaily ’s personal liberty. The founders believed that personal and economic Farah insisted that Obama’s birthplace freedom were indivisible, as do we. Our current government’s inter - remains an unsettled issue. “The pres - ference distorts the free market and inhibits the pursuit of individual ident refuses to produce documents and economic liberty. Therefore, we support a return to the free - proving he meets the Constitution’s market principles on which this nation was founded and oppose natural-born citizen requirement,” government intervention into the operations of private business.” WorldNetDaily said in paraphrasing his argument. 16 Source: Tea Party Patriots, www.teapartypatriots.org The publication reported that “the crowd cheered wildly, whistled and Sides of George Washington Universi - said at the America’s Future Founda - applauded” when Farah made his claim. ty. “But that’s not a recipe for trans - tion event. “, guns and taxes But observers from both right and left formational change.” are settled issues. If you’re an activist reported a different impression. Sides cites the history of the Club on these issues, the point is actually Jonathan Raban, writing in the left- for Growth, an organization of eco - changing the minds of Democrats.” leaning New York Review of Books , said nomic conservatives that rates law - The reason for that ideological vic - the favorable response was not uni - makers on their votes on taxes, spend - tory is easy to identify, Soren said. versal: “I saw as many glum and un - ing and related issues. “No one would “We’re winning these [electoral] fights responsive faces in the crowd as peo - say that the has been on the ground because the Republi - ple standing up to cheer.” 17 And able to remake the Republican Party,” can Party is solid — because it’s been conservative blogger, columnist and Sides says, “but it has exerted influ - taken over in certain significant ways professor Reynolds says, “I did not ence in certain races.” by conservatives.” hear a single person say a good thing Republican consultant and blogger about Farah or the ‘birther’ issue.” Soren Dayton disputes that view. “If you Does the Tea Party attract con - In fact, the dispute went public. look at the electoral and policy suc - spiracy theorists? After his speech, Farah engaged in a cesses of the conservative movement Advocates of ideas and policies from heated argument outside the conven - — look at the Republican Party,” Dayton far outside the mainstream are the bane tion hall with , pub -

248 CQ Researcher lisher of the conservative Breitbart.com nounce excessive government intru - news and commentary sites. 18 Breit - sion in citizens’ lives, though typi - bart called Farah’s focus on Obama’s cally with little reference to the Pa - BACKGROUND citizenship “a fundamentally contro - triot Act, the Bush-era law that versial issue that forces a unified group expanded government’s surveillance of people to have to break into dif - and monitoring authority over e-mail People’s Party ferent parts.” 19 and other communications. “If these The surfacing of the tensions folks are concerned about over - istorians trace the origins of pop - among the tea partiers did lend sub - weening power, then why H ulism to the early years of the stance to press reports of fringe con - did the movement not arise during new republic. President Andrew Jack - stituencies attaching themselves to the the Bush years?” Lowndes asks. son, who served two terms (1829-1837), movement, whose primary concerns Hawkins of Right Wing News coun - helped formulate the fear that a fi - publicly center on economic policy. ters that the same kind of inconsis - nancial elite threatened popular con - Les Phillip, a Tea Party candidate tency shadows the liberal activist trol of national institutions. 20 for the Republican nomination for world. Antiwar marches and protests Jackson’s distrust of “money power” a House seat in , blames of all kinds marked the Bush presi - led him to a bill to extend the the mainstream media for charac - dency, he observes. Yet, with tens of charter of a privately owned national terizing the Tea Party constituency thousands of U.S. troops fighting bank that served the federal govern - as “white, racist old men.” To be hard in Afghanistan and still present ment as well as private interests. “It is sure, he says, “You do have some in , “Where’s the antiwar move - to be regretted that the rich and pow - folks on the far right.” But, he adds, ment?” he asks. erful too often bend the acts of gov - “Most are in the center.” Similarly, he argues, the presence ernment to their selfish purposes,” his Himself a black immigrant from of fringe activists who attach them - veto message said. 21 Barbados, Phillip calls Farah’s insis - selves to a broader cause is no less Jackson’s admonition resounded for tence on the Obama birth issue a di - a problem on the left than on the generations. But it wasn’t until the late version. But he voices sympathy for right. “There’s a very tiny percentage 19th century that a national political Tancredo’s call for voter-literacy tests, of people who generally are not wel - movement was organized to wrest con - despite their unsavory history. “I know come at tea parties,” Hawkins says, trol of the country from intertwined more about the country than many adding that he distinguishes mem - political and business classes. The people who were born here,” he says. bers or sympathizers of the militia People’s Party of America, formed in “If you’re going to be a voter, you movement from those who question 1892 in St. Louis, united an array of need to understand the history and Obama’s presidential eligibility. “I guar - activists that included small farmers governing documents and how the antee you that, percentage-wise, there from the South and Great Plains who government should work.” are as many Democrats who think were overwhelmed by debt; the Nevertheless, Lowndes of the Uni - Bush stole the election in 2004 as Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, versity of Oregon argues that racial people who think Barack Obama is which advocated alcohol prohibition; fears and xenophobia do play a role not a citizen. I would put those as two early union organizations, the in some Tea Party movements, complete equivalents.” Knights of Labor and the American whose agendas may vary widely Sides, of George Washington Uni - Federation of Labor; and evangelical from place to place. “Certainly one versity argues, however, that the Tea Christians with socialist politics. does get the sense that the move - Partys’ big tent may limit the move - All saw themselves as oppressed by ment is made up mostly of older ment’s effectiveness for reasons that go big business and its political allies. The folks, 50 and older,” he says. “I think beyond issues of political respectability. prohibitionists viewed big business as these are people who are most like - The presence of the “birthers” and profiting from the vice of alcoholism. ly to be uncomfortable with cultur - some militia members, along with peo - But the Populists — as they were al differences and certainly with ple concerned about taxes and spend - dubbed — dodged the issue of race racial differences.” ing, likely will add to what he sees as because they counted on Southern Racial and cultural concerns may a fundamental weakness. “There is an supporters of segregation. outweigh suspicion of the business extraordinarily diffuse organizational Still, the Populist alliance generated establishment, which used to pre - structure with a lot of internecine con - enough enthusiasm to drive a presi - dominate among many of today’s Tea flict,” he says. “That makes coalescing dential campaign in the 1892 election. Party supporters. They also de - extremely difficult.” The Populist candidate, former Union

www.cqresearcher.com March 19, 2010 249 TEA PARTY MOVEMENT

Army officer James B. Weaver, garnered tion), he defended , as Although the infamous “radio 8.5 percent of the national vote, an did party rank and file. (After the party priest” never returned to the public impressive showing for a third-party ceased to exist, Watson incited and arena, he left his mark. In depicting candidate. then defended the of Jewish communism as a menace to ordinary Realizing that their party stood no factory manager Leo Frank of Atlanta, Americans, Coughlin anticipated the chance of winning the presidency on wrongly accused of the rape and mur - early-1950s career of Sen. Joseph R. its own, the Populists forged an elec - der of a 13-year-old girl.) 23 McCarthy, R-Wis., and his supporters. toral alliance in 1896 with the Demo - In other respects, the Populists’ at - To be sure, some of McCarthy’s fol - cratic Party (founded by Jackson). The tacks on big business, as well as ties lowers abhorred anti-Semitism; National Democrats’ nominee was William Jen - to the early labor movement, marked Review founder William F. Buckley Jr., nings Bryan, who had worked closely them as left-liberal. President Franklin a leading defender of McCarthy, was with the Populists as a House member D. Roosevelt’s policies of credited with purging that prejudice from . 1933-1940 drew on the Populists’ doc - from mainstream conservatism. 26 Eth - Known for his spellbinding oratory, trines. They influenced his campaigns nic hatred aside, McCarthy owed an Bryan wanted the U.S. currency based to impose regulatory controls — such intellectual debt to Coughlin with his on both gold and silver, not just gold. as creation of the Securities and Ex - portrayal of working people preyed That would lower the value of debt- change Commission — on the “economic upon by communist-inspired elites or ridden farmers’ obligations by lowering royalists” of Wall Street. And his admin - outright communist agents. the value of the dollar. istration’s agricultural policies, which McCarthy himself saw his career go “Having behind us the commercial sought to stabilize prices by subsidizing down in flames in 1954 after a con - interests and the laboring interests and farmers for not overproducing, also grew flict with the U.S. Army in which the all the toiling masses,” Bryan said in his out of the Populists’ search for solutions senator accused the military of har - electrifying speech to the Democratic to farmers’ financial woes. 24 boring communists. But McCarthyism Convention that nominated him, “we Nevertheless, Watson’s career had left a foundation upon which later shall answer their demands for a gold shown that populism can whip up conservative politicians built, writes standard by saying to them, you shall hatred as well as inspire ordinary cit - Georgetown historian Kazin. not press down upon the brow of labor izens to demand that government serve By stirring up distrust of the high - this crown of thorns. You shall not cru - their interests, as was exemplified ly educated graduates of elite cify mankind upon a cross of gold.” 22 during the Roosevelt era by the ca - schools who predominated in the However, the Democrat-Populist al - reer of the Rev. Charles E. Coughlin, top reaches of public life — espe - liance proved no match for the Re - a figure of far greater influence than cially the establish - publicans. Populists’ weaknesses included Watson. The Catholic priest from Royal ment — McCarthy and his allies their strong ties to the Farm Belt and Oak, Mich., went from being a New caused serious alarm among liberal support of strict Protestant moral codes Deal supporter to a furious critic, academics. McCarthyism “succeeded — turn-offs to big-city voters, many of whose weekly radio speeches became in frightening many liberals into mis - them Catholic immigrants. wildly popular. He then took a sharp trusting the very kinds of white Amer - Republican William McKinley won right turn into anti-Semitism in 1938, icans — Catholic workers, military the election, which marked the high attempting to link to commu - veterans, discontented families in the point of the People’s Party’s fortunes. nism — a longtime target of his wrath middle of the social structure — who By 1908 it had dissolved. — and financial manipulation. 25 had once been foot soldiers of caus - Dislike of Jews was commonplace es such as industrial unionism, Social in pre-World War II America, but Cough - Security and the GI Bill.” 27 Right Turn lin’s calls for action against Jews found little support outside the ranks of his opulist leaders spoke eloquently hardcore supporters. He raised enough The ‘Silent Majority’ P of corporate oppression, a classic concern in the Catholic hierarchy, how - issue of the left. But their handling of ever, to lead the archbishop of Detroit he tensions fanned by McCarthy race would seem to place them on to order Coughlin to end his radio T burst into flame in the mid-1960s. the political right. While Tom Watson, broadcasts in 1941. And in 1942, at the Some of the most active and visible a Georgia Populist leader, made joint U.S. Justice Department’s request, the leaders of the speaking appearances with black pop - church ordered him to stop publishing — such as Stokely Carmichael of the ulists (who had their own organiza - his weekly newspaper. Continued on p. 252

250 CQ Researcher Chronology

1955 1830s-1900s Liberal academics alarmed by - Movements expressing citizen McCarthyism argue that far-right Populism returns as a third-party outrage at government and tendencies lurk within all populist- movement, and then as a group business elites begin. oriented movements. with strong political party ties.

1832 • 1992 President Andrew Jackson vetoes Texas billionaire H. a bill to expand the national launches himself as a third-party bank, calling it a tool of the “rich 1960s- presidential candidate, attacking deficit and powerful.” Civil rights and antiwar move - spending and outsourcing of jobs ments prompt middle-class abroad. . . . Perot wins 19 percent of 1892 whites to become Republicans. the vote, drawing votes from both People’s Party of America (populists) winning candidate and formed in St. Louis by small farmers, 1966 the defeated George H. W. Bush. evangelical Christians, labor unions Activists in Oakland, Calif., form and alcohol prohibition advocates. , embodying the 2008 worst fears of many middle-class Congressionally approved finan - 1896 whites about surging left-wing radi - cial bailout creates discontent Populists unite with Democratic Party calism and “.” among grassroots Republicans behind presidential candidate William and Democrats. Jennings Bryan, who is defeated. 1968 Violence at Democratic National 2009 1908 Convention in Chicago deepens di - Seattle woman outraged by Obama People’s Party dissolves, unable to vide between pro- and anti-Vietnam administration-proposed economic develop an urban base to match War Democrats and further alienates stimulus holds protest against its rural constituency. middle-class whites from protest “porkulus.” . . . CNBC reporter Rick movements. . . . Alabama Gov. Santelli calls for a “tea party” while • George C. Wallace wins 13 percent denouncing administration’s rescue of ballots for his third-party candida - plan for homeowners facing foreclo - cy, built on anti-Washington message. sure. . . . Dozens of activists net - 1930s-1950s work to plan “tea party” demonstra - Populist politicians begin direct - 1969 tions on Feb. 27. . . . Tea Party ing anger toward government, Referring to Americans turned off activists take part in town hall and sometimes ethnic minorities, by protesters, President Richard M. meetings with lawmakers, denounc - and away from big business. Nixon calls on “great silent majority” ing administration’s health-care pro - to support his plan to end the war. posal. . . . Fox News commentator 1938 Glenn Beck promotes a “9/12” rally The Rev. Charles E. Coughlin, a 1972 in Washington, which draws heavy Catholic priest with a large radio Sen. George S. McGovern, D-S.D., crowd of Tea Party supporters. following, switches from support of the Democratic presidential candi - President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s date, wins only one state as in - 2010 New Deal to virulent opposition. cumbent Nixon successfully ties Tea Party activists contribute to Democrats to privileged, unpatriotic surprise election victory of Repub - 1954 elites who look down on “good, lican Sen. Scott Brown in Massa - After leaping to prominence by decent people.” chusetts. . . . “Tea Party Nation” accusing the State Department convention in Nashville sparks dis - and other agencies of harboring 1979 sension in movement due to high Soviet loyalists, Sen. Joseph R. Former Gov. , R-Calif., ticket price and presence of anti- McCarthy wrecks his career by wins the presidency, largely by ap - immigration and “birther” speakers. charging the U.S. Army is also pealing to the “silent majority” con - . . . Tea Party opponents begin protecting communists. stituency identified by Nixon. organizing Coffee Party alternative.

www.cqresearcher.com March 19, 2010 251 TEA PARTY MOVEMENT

Tea Partiers Take Aim at Health Reform Movement plans a replay of last summer’s town hall meetings.

oblessness hovers near 10 percent. Yet in a country Woodstock, Ga. Martin’s family lost health coverage when her where most Americans get health insurance through husband’s business failed more than two years ago. When J their employers, opposing health insurance reforms one of the Martins’ children gets sick, “We tell the doctor we proposed by congressional Democrats at the urging of don’t have insurance, and make arrangements to pay cash,” President Barack Obama has been a driving force in the Martin says. Tea Party movement. The hardships brought on by the hit even deep - “The Tea Party . . . did help destroy health reform,” Kelly er for Martin’s family. She and her husband lost their home, and Jane Torrance, literary editor of the American Conservative , for a while the couple was cleaning houses to make ends meet. claimed at a Washington panel discussion in February. “I think Nevertheless, she opposes the Obama plan. “I think that we that’s an amazing accomplishment.” do need health insurance reform,” she says. “I just don’t think Torrance’s remarks at the America’s Future Foundation event this bill is a good idea.” may have been premature. Since the event, prospects for pas - Her political response, even in the face of personal hard - sage of the legislation seem to have improved. ship, illustrates a major facet of the movement, and of Amer - With a congressional recess starting on March 29, tea partiers ican conservatism in general. “People don’t connect the eco - are aiming for a replay of last summer’s fractious “town hall” nomic crisis to the need for any kind of government meetings with legislators, when the movement’s opposition to intervention,” says Joseph Lowndes, a political scientist at George health reform — especially its added cost to the deficit — first Washington University. “People come to this movement with a erupted. “We’re gonna hit ‘em when we know they’re back in pretty strong level of conservatism in place already. So there [the] district, and we’re gonna hit ‘em hard,” Tom Gaitens, a is that irony: to some extent these movements are facilitated Tampa Tea Party organizer, told Fox News. by a poor economy, but their reaction . . . does not embrace Final passage of the legislation before the recess would the government’s effort to fix things.” short-circuit that plan. But the prospects are uncertain. John Hawkins, publisher of the Right Wing News Web site, In any event, plans to destroy the health-care plan, a long - suggests another reason for conservative distrust of the health- time centerpiece of the Democratic agenda, might seem counter- reform plan. “I think people fear there is going to be a mas - intuitive, given that the Tea Party hopes to grow — in a coun - sive decrease in the quality of care,” he said. “The idea that try with up to 45 million uninsured residents. 1 you’ll cover more people, but the quality won’t drop and it Among them is Tea Party organizer of won’t cost more — people don’t believe that.”

Continued from p. 250 college. Antiwar activists also began Although Vice President Hubert H. Student Non-Violent Coordinating openly advocating -dodging and Humphrey won the nomination, his cam - Committee — adopted the “black draft resistance, some even burning paign against Republican Richard M. power” slogan. The term was elastic their draft cards in protest — stirring Nixon was hobbled by the escalation — covering everything from affirma - outrage among many among the of the war under outgoing President tive action to armed self-defense — World War II-Korean War generations. Lyndon B. Johnson. but many whites heard a threat. Political and social tensions explod - Nixon’s victory enabled him to in - Adding to the tension, the Black ed in 1968. First, the April 4 assassina - dulge a deep grudge against the East Panther Party, formed in 1966 in Oak - tion of civil rights leader the Rev. Dr. Coast-based Democratic political elite. land, Calif., paraded with firearms to Martin Luther King Jr. led to rioting in In 1969, soon after taking office, he illustrate its goal of “self-defense” against black communities across the country, used a term that echoed old-school police officers and soon embraced the notably in Washington, D.C., where the populist rhetoric, urging the “great silent Cuban and North Korean versions of National Guard was called out to quell majority” to support his peace plan. 29 communist doctrines. 28 the violence. Also that spring, tensions In effect, Nixon was effectively telling The anti- movement over the Vietnam War within the De - ordinary Americans repelled by the civil also was gathering strength on college mocratic Party — and within the coun - disorder and protests that they were the campuses, where potential male foot try as a whole — came to a head dur - backbone of the nation, despite all the soldiers benefited from draft defer - ing the Democratic Convention in noise generated by the demonstrators. ments, unlike working-class high school Chicago, marked by large antiwar demon - But another high-profile politician graduates who weren’t going on to strations and violent police repression. tapped even deeper into the vein of out -

252 CQ Researcher And, Hawkins says, conservatives can’t qualify for insurance could benefit understand another deep-seated el - from high-risk insurance pools, which ement of American political culture. some states have set up. Tea Party or - “People don’t, with good reason, trust ganizer John M. O’Hara laid out these the competence of government.” and other proposals in a book on the Martin opposes health reformers’ movement. 3 plans to penalize businesses that The book doesn’t propose dismantling don’t provide health insurance for Medicare, the massive health-care subsidy employees and to raise taxes to help program for the elderly, and neither does subsidize mandatory coverage for Martin. “It’s there now, and we need to those who couldn’t afford it. Although deal with it as it is.” e the legislation hasn’t been finalized, l And, she adds, “I don’t think there is h e t

proposals so far would pay for the S anything wrong with government pro -

k

expanded insurance coverage by rais - r viding safety nets. I understand that some - a

ing taxes on high-end health insur - M times things happen to people.” / o

ance plans or on wealthy Americans t o

(those earning more than $250,000 a h — Peter Katel P

year). Martin also does not like the P A proposal to delay implementation of A tea partier protests President Obama’s 1 Carl Bialik, “The Unhealthy Accounting of Unin - benefits until 2014, after some high - sured Americans,” , June 2 4, health-care reform plans before his 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12457985 er taxes take effect (though a prohi - arrival at Arcadia University in 2347944191.html#articleTabs%3Darticle. Some ques - bition would be immediate on in - Glenside, Pa., on March 8, 2010. tion that U.S. Census Bureau estimate, in part be - cause it includes illegal aliens who wouldn’t be surance companies refusing clients covered under a new law. 2 with pre-existing conditions). 2 Alec MacGillis and Amy Goldstein, “Obama offers a new proposal on Martin does favor making coverage “portable,” not depen - health care,” , Feb. 23, 2010, p. A1. dent on employment — which would be compatible with the 3 John M. O’Hara, A New American Tea Party: The Counterrevolution Against Obama plan, in principle. And she agrees that individuals who Bailouts, Handouts, Reckless Spending, and More Taxes (2010), pp. 175-201.

rage that ran through blue-collar Amer - As a third-party candidate, Wallace made moves to benefit Wallace in ex - ica. Gov. George C. Wallace of Alabama had no chance of winning, but he change for the Alabaman dropping had propelled himself into the national garnered nearly 10 million votes — his third- party strategy and running in - spotlight by dint of his fervent resistance 13 percent of ballots — showing that stead in the Democratic presidential to the civil rights movement. As the pres - his appeal ran strong. 31 Many of those primary. As a Democratic candidate, idential candidate of the American In - Wallace votes would have gone to Nixon Wallace wouldn’t siphon off Republi - dependent Party, he tried to expand his if the Alabama governor hadn’t launched can votes in the general election, as segregationist appeal (he later repudiat - his third-party bid, and Nixon con - he had in 1968. 33 ed Jim Crow) to cast himself as the voice cluded that he didn’t want to face that In the summer of 1971, Wallace met of the common American. He demon - challenge again. 32 with Nixon during a flight to Alabama strated his familiarity with his con - from the president’s vacation home in stituency by ticking off its members’ oc - Key Biscayne, Fla. Three months later, cupations: “The bus driver, the truck driver, Enduring Appeal a federal grand jury investigating alleged the beautician, the fireman, the police - tax fraud by Wallace’s brother dissolved man and the steelworker, the plumber n 1972 Wallace had plans for an - without issuing indictments. Shortly there - and the communications worker and the I other presidential run. But the out - after, the Justice Department announced oil worker and the little businessman.” sider candidate apparently wasn’t above — “suddenly and improbably,” in Perl - They knew more about the nation’s making insider deals. In a book on stein’s words — that Alabama’s civil rights problems, he said, than snobbish politi - Nixon’s presidential campaigns, au - enforcement plan was superior to other cians, academics and journalists. 30 thor Rick Perlstein reports that Nixon states’ plans.

www.cqresearcher.com March 19, 2010 253 TEA PARTY MOVEMENT

Sarah Palin Shines at Tea Party Convention Some see her as a potential party leader.

ea partiers pride themselves on their lack of formal lead - Palin’s star power certainly generated media attention for the ership, but that hasn’t stopped speculation about who convention, even though a relatively modest 600 people attended, T will emerge to lead the movement. So far, the specula - and the convention was controversial within the movement. Her tion largely has zeroed in on Sarah Palin. And the former vice- speech, in fact, was carried live on C-SPAN, CNN and Fox News. presidential candidate’s insistence that she isn’t seeking a lead - Palin made a point of waving off the idea that she wants ership role hasn’t squelched the topic. to take the helm. “I caution against allowing this movement to In fact, Palin has actually fueled the speculation, possibly be defined by any one leader or politician,” she said. “The Tea inadvertently. After her surprise resignation last year as Alas - Party movement is not a top-down operation. It’s a ground-up ka’s governor and the publication of Going Rogue , her best- call to action that is forcing both parties to change the way selling book, she addressed the Tea Party’s February conven - they’re doing business, and that’s beautiful.” 4 tion in Nashville — the only speech she’s given this year at For all of her attention-getting capabilities, Palin comes with an overtly political event. Her political ideas, to the extent she baggage. A new book by Steve Schmidt, top strategist for the has spelled them out, seem consistent with the tea partiers’ call McCain-Palin campaign, described her as dishonest. And another for lower taxes and smaller government. book, by journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann reported In the eyes of Tea Party activists who skipped Nashville — in that she was ignorant of even basic national and international part because they objected to its $500-plus ticket price — Palin matters. “[S]he still didn’t really understand why there was a North made a mistake in going. That view was even more prevalent Korea and a ,” Heilemann said on CNN. 5 after the influential online political newspaper Politico reported Even a friendlier figure, Stephen F. Hayward of the conser - she had received $100,000 for . “This has nothing to vative American Enterprise Institute, warned Palin that she’s do with the grassroots movement — nothing,” said Robin Stublen, nowhere near as ready for a national position as Ronald Rea - who helped organize a Tea Party group in Punta Gorda, Fla. 1 gan was. “Palin has as much as admitted that she needs to ac - Palin didn’t deny that account, but she wrote in USA Today that quire more depth, especially on foreign policy,” he wrote in “any compensation for my appearance will go right back to the The Washington Post. “One thing above all is required: Do your cause.” 2 She didn’t specify the precise destination for the money. homework. Reagan did his.” 6 Some tea partiers saluted her presence in Nashville and its But in Nashville, the crowd loved her, wrote Jonathan Raban effects on the movement. “I think the Tea Party is gaining re - in the liberal New York Review of Books. Many had been cool spect when we’re able to attract some of the quality repre - not only to the anti-immigrant talk of Tom Tancredo, the former sentation . . . a caliber of person such as this,” said Bob Porto, Colorado congressman and 2008 GOP presidential candidate, but an attendee from Little Rock. 3 also the Obama-birthplace suspicions of Web news entrepreneur

In January 1972 Wallace announced he had earned a Distinguished Flying successful. McGovern won only one he would run for the Democratic pres - Cross as a bomber in World War II state, Massachusetts, and Washington, idential nomination. In , the first and hardly fit the stereotype. 34 D.C. But Nixon’s even more spec - primary, he won first place in a five- But McGovern’s supporters did in - tacular political downfall during the man race, with 42 percent of the vote. clude the liberal wing of the Demo - Watergate scandal prevented him from In the end, Wallace (who was shot cratic Party, Hollywood stars among taking advantage of his victory. He and paralyzed midway through the them. So the “McGovern Democrats” was forced to resign in 1974. campaign) won only two primaries neatly symbolized one side of the so - Though President Ronald Reagan, outside the Old Confederacy, in Michi - cial gap that right-wing populists had another Republican, adopted Nixon’s gan and . The Democratic identified, and that Nixon had done his “silent majority” paradigm, Reagan’s nomination went to Sen. George S. best to widen. “It is time that good, de - overall optimism effectively sanded off McGovern of South Dakota, an anti- cent people stop letting themselves be the doctrine’s sharp edges. And Reagan Vietnam War candidate. bulldozed by anybody who presumes didn’t have to contend with directing Unfortunately for McGovern, he came to be the self-righteous moral judge of an unpopular war. to symbolize a social gap between our society,” Nixon said in a radio ad - During the 1992 reelection campaign hard-working, ordinary Americans, and dress shortly before Election Day. 35 of Reagan’s successor (and former vice pampered liberals and radicals. In fact, His strategy proved spectacularly president), President George H. W. Bush,

254 CQ Researcher Joseph Farah, Raban reported. get a similar result,” he says. “She made But the crowd embraced Palin. “A a point of saying she didn’t want to be great wave of adoration met the their leader, and most people agreed. small black-suited woman. . . . The But the tendency of people to run after d

entire ballroom was willing Sarah to n a charismatic leader is probably geneti - a l

transport us to a state of delirium k cally hardwired.” r with whatever she chose to say.” 7 a M

The speech was something of a y — Peter Katel r r e

letdown, Raban added, because Palin’s J /

delivery was better suited to the TV R 1 Quoted in Chris Good, “Is Palin’s Tea Party A

C Speech a Mistake?” , Feb. 4, 2010,

cameras than to the live audience. S www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/02/is- Still, she got a big sendoff. “The huge A N palins-tea-party-speech-a-mistake-tea-partiers-have-

r mixed-opinions/35360/. standing ovation (‘Run, Sarah, Run!’) o f

2 was more for the concept of Palin s Ben Smith and Andy Barr, “Tea partiers shell e

g out big bucks for Sarah Palin,” Politico , Jan. 12, . . . than it was for the lackluster a 2010, www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31409. 8 m I

speech,” Raban wrote. html; Sarah Palin, “Why I’m Speaking at Tea Party y

t Convention,” USA Today , Feb. 3, 2010, http:// Palin hasn’t revealed whether she’ll t e blogs. usatoday.com/oped/2010/02/column-why-im- run for president in 2012, but she G speaking-at-tea-party-convention-. html. pointedly avoids denying it. “I won’t Sarah Palin answered questions from 3 Ibid. close the door that perhaps could attendees at the National Tea Party 4 “Sarah Palin Speaks at Tea Party Convention,” be open for me in the future,” she Convention in Nashville on Feb. 6, 2010. CNN, Feb. 6, 2010, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRAN 9 SCRIPTS/1002/06/cnr.09.html. told Fox News. 5 Jonathan Martin, “Steve Schmidt: Sarah Palin has trouble with truth,” Politi - However, University of law professor Glenn Harlan co , Jan. 11, 2010, www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31335.html . Reynolds, who covered the Nashville convention for the Web-based 6 Steven F. Hayward, “Would Reagan Vote for Sarah Palin?” The Washington Pajamas TV , warned that Palin’s popularity could exact the same Post , March 7, 2010, p. B1. 7 Jonathan Raban, “At the Tea Party,” New York Review of Books , March 25, 2010, price that he argues President Obama has made his political al - www.nybooks.com/articles/23723. lies pay for hero-worshipping him. 8 Ibid. “The biggest risk that the Tea Party movement faces is that 9 Quoted in “Palin says 2012 presidential bid a possibility,” CNN, Feb. 8, it will create its own Obama in the person of Sarah Palin and 2010, www..com/2010/POLITICS/02/07/palin.presidential.run.tea.party/ index.html. another populist figure emerged, Texas ,” he said shortly before for - wrote The Washington Post ’s John Mintz, billionaire H. Ross Perot. In his brief mally announcing. 37 “that millions of Americans are deeply but influential third-party campaign And he decried what he saw as the disturbed by what they believe is a for president, Perot declared, “Amer - lavish perks of government service. breakdown in American society.” 39 ica today is a nation in crisis with “We have government turned upside Political professionals had assumed a government in gridlock. We are down, where the people running it act Perot would draw far more Republican deeply in debt and spending beyond and live at your expense like royalty , votes away from Bush than Democratic our means.” 36 and many of you are working two ones from Bill Clinton. But post-election A pro-choice, law-and-order con - jobs just to stay even.” 38 surveys showed that Perot voters — often servative, Perot paid little attention Perot’s intolerance for criticism and casting what amounted to protest votes to social issues. Instead, he empha - a strong authoritarian streak (he praised — came from both Republican- and sized the need to cut government Singapore, notorious for its rigid en - Democratic-oriented voters. spending and strongly opposed the forcement of laws on personal behav - “Those who said they voted for proposed North American ior) limited his appeal. Still, he wound Perot,” The Washington Post reported, Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and up with 19 percent of the vote, including “split almost evenly between Bush and Canada. Business’ “job is to create 29 percent of all votes by independents. Clinton when asked their second and protect jobs in America — not “He showed the nation’s ruling elites,” choice.” 40

www.cqresearcher.com March 19, 2010 255 TEA PARTY MOVEMENT

New Coffee Party Drawing Supporters “People are tired of the anger.”

n alternative to the Tea Party is taking shape, as citi - across the country, the Coffee Party page had collected more zens who oppose its message and tactics are forming than 100,000 fans. “Coffee partiers seem to be more in favor A their own grassroots network — the Coffee Party. of government involvement — as in envisioning a greater role The Tea Party’s nascent rival takes a deliberately toned-down for government in the future of health care — but denounce approach to political conflict. “We’ve got to send a message to the “corporatocracy” that holds sway in Washington,” The Chris - people in Washington that you have to learn how to work to - tian Monitor reported from a Coffee Party meeting in gether, you have to learn how to talk about these issues with - Decatur, Ga. 2 out acting like you’re in an ultimate fighting session,” founder Whether the Coffee Party grows into a full-fledged move - , who launched the movement from a Coffee Party ment, there’s no denying the initial appeal. The organizer of a Facebook page, told recently. 1 Dallas-area gathering in March had expected 15 people at most. Tea partiers put themselves on the map with rallies, point - She got 40. “This is snowballing,” Raini Lane said. “People are tired ed questions to politicians at town hall meetings and election of the anger, tired of the hate.” 3 campaign organizing. How the coffee partiers plan to project themselves into the national debate isn’t clear yet. But there’s — Peter Katel no question that the effort grows out of the liberal, Democratic Party-oriented part of the — a counterpart 1 Quoted in Kate Zernike, “Coffee Party, With a Taste for Civic Participa - to the veteran Republicans who launched the Tea Party. Park, tion, Is Added to the Menu,” The New York Times , March 2, 2010, p. A12. 2 Patrik Jonsson, “‘Coffee party’ movement: Not far from the ‘tea party’ mes - a documentary filmmaker in the Washington suburb of Silver sage?” The Christian Science Monitor , March 13, 2010, www.csmonitor.com/ Spring, Md., had worked on the Obama campaign. USA/Politics/2010/0313/Coffee-party-movement-Not-far-from-the-tea-party-message. By mid-March, when enthusiasts nationwide held a coordi - 3 Quoted in Cassie Clark, “Coffee Party energizes fans,” Dallas Morning nated series of get-togethers in — of course — coffee shops News, March 14, 2010, p. B2.

wise is destructive to a nation which to a Senate seat left open by a Re - has built its economy through the in - publican retirement. Florida’s GOP Gov. CURRENT novation and hard work and creativ - , whom tea partiers con - ity of people who have come here sider insufficiently conservative, is fight - SITUATION from foreign shores,” Romney told The ing hard for the Senate nomination against Boston Globe. 41 , a lobbyist and former state Some candidates seeking Tea Party legislator who has become a national The Election Test votes do take an anti-immigrant line. star among conservative Republicans. In , former Rep. J.D. Hayworth “America already has a Democrat Party, cross the country, Tea Party-affili - is challenging veteran Sen. John McCain, it doesn’t need two Democrat parties,” A ated candidates — or those who the GOP candidate for president in Rubio told CPAC in February. 43 claim the movement’s mantle — are 2008. “In Arizona, you can’t ignore the And Sen. Jim DeMint, the South running for a range of Republican nom - Republican animus against Sen. McCain Carolina Republican who has be - inations, in races that will test both the on immigration,” Jason Rose, a come a Senate liaison for the Tea movement’s strength and its potential spokesman for Hayworth, told , Party, made clear to the CPAC crowd to influence GOP politics. The races a Washington political newspaper. 42 where his sympathies lie, tacitly draw - will also set the stage for the 2012 Re - Meanwhile, another Tea Party- ing a parallel between Crist and Sen. publican presidential nomination. backed candidate, Mike Lee, is chal - of . who So far, at least one potential Re - lenging Republican Sen. Bob Bennett of defected from the GOP last year to publican candidate seems to think the Utah, whose backers include the state’s save his seat. “I would rather have Tea Party will have run its course by senior senator, Republican . 30 Marco Rubios in the Senate than then. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt And in , Tea Party enthusiast 60 Arlen Specters.” 44 Romney is criticizing populism among (son of libertarian Rep. Ron In the Deep South, where the Tea both Republicans and Democrats. “Pop - Paul, R-Texas) is competing against a Party runs along the same conservative ulism sometimes takes the form of Republican officeholder, Secretary of State Republican tracks, two Tea Party- being anti-immigrant . . . and that like - Trey Grayson, for the GOP nomination Continued on p. 258

256 CQ Researcher At Issue: Does the Tea Party movement represent another Great

Awyaes kening?

GLENN HARLAN REYNOLDS JOSEPH LOWNDES PROFESSOR OF LAW , U NIVERSITY OF PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE , TENNESSEE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON

WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER , MARCH 2010 WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER , MARCH 2010

n the 18th and 19th centuries, America experienced two he Tea Party movement is indeed revivalist, but it revives Great Awakenings, in which mainstream religious institu - not the egalitarian impulses of the 1740s or 1830s that fed i tions — grown too stodgy, inbred and self-serving for t the zeal of the Revolution and abolition. Rather it rehashes many — faced a sudden flowering of new, broad-based religious a tradition of racial, antigovernment populism that stretches from fervor. Now we’re experiencing a third Great Awakening, but this George Wallace’s American Independent Party through Reagan time it’s political, not religious, in nature. Democrats to Sarah Palin Republicans. Nonetheless, the problem is the same: The existing institu - In this tradition’s origins mythology, a virtuous white citi - tions no longer serve the needs of broad swaths of the pub - zenry became squeezed between liberal elites above and lic. The choice between the two parties is increasingly seen as black dependents below as a result of civil rights and John - a choice between two gangs of thieves and charlatans. While son’s Great Society. Since then, these Americans have resented Americans always joked about corruption and venality in poli - taxation and social welfare, linking it to those whom they be - tics, now those jokes don’t seem as funny. lieve are recipients of special rights and government coddling. The Tea Party movement is one symptom of this phenome - Thus, for the tea partiers and their immediate forebears the non: Millions of Americans are aligning themselves with a bottom- state is what monopoly capital was for 19th-century populists: up insurgencyy angered by ebailouts, grows ing deficits and the a parasitic entitny controlling their o lives through opaque and treatment of taxpayers as cash cows. Though often treated as a malevolent machinations. It is worth noting that a significant red-state phenomenon, the Tea Party movement is strong even percentage of tea partiers appear to be in their 60s or older in deep-blue states like Massachusetts, where Scott Brown was — placing them in the generation that expressed the most elected to the Senate, or , where one out of three vot - negative reaction to the advances of the civil rights movement. ers told a recent poll that they identified with the Tea Party. Why are we seeing this wave of protest now? The Tea But the Tea Party movement is a symptom of a much Party movement has emerged out of the confluence of two broader phenomenon, exemplified by earlier explosions of momentous events: an enormous economic crisis and the elec - support for Howard Dean via Meetup and Barack Obama and tion of a black president. The dislocations produced by the Sarah Palin via Facebook. They were triggered by the growing former have stoked the latent racial nationalism ignited by the sense that politics has become a cozy game for insiders, and latter. Obama represents both aspects of modern populist re - that the interests of most Americans are ignored. sentment — blackness and the state, and his perceived cozi - Thus, Americans are becoming harder to ignore. Over the ness with Wall Street taps into outrage felt toward banks right past year they’ve expressed their dissatisfaction at Tea Party now. Add to this Glenn Beck’s continual attacks on Obama rallies and town hall meetings, and at marches on Washington and more generally, and you get a demonology and state capitals. And they’re planning what to do next, that allows tea partiers to see tyranny wherever they look. (If using the Internet and . “demonology” seems too strong a word here, look no further Traditional politics is still wedded to 20th-century top-down than the grotesque Joker-ized image of Obama over the word models, where mailing lists, organizations and message control “” that has been omnipresent at Tea Party rallies.) are key. But in the 21st century, the real energy is at the Will this movement transform the landscape? Third-party grassroots, where organization can take place on the fly. movements have impact when they can drive a wedge into When Tea Party activists decided to support Brown, they sent the two-party system, creating a crisis that reframes the major him money through his Web site, and put together an online political questions of the day. But the stated principles of the “” campaign to bypass the Republican Party, various Tea Party groups show them to be entirely consistent which got behind Brown’s seemingly quixotic campaign only with the social conservative wing of the GOP. And there is a after the momentum was established by the grassroots. great overlap in leadership ties and funding sources as well, Coupled with widespread dissatisfaction at things as they are , making it likely that the movement will find itself reabsorbed expect a lot more of this grassroots , in both parties, by the party with little independent impact. over thno e coming years.

www.cqresearcher.com March 19, 2010 257 TEA PARTY MOVEMENT

Continued from p. 256 “You’ve got these very divisive pri - $15-billion jobs bill pushed by the Obama friendly candidates for Congress are maries,” Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., administration and Democratic Senate opposing each other in north Alaba - chairman of the House Democratic leader of . “I came ma. “A lot of Tea Party activists are campaign organization, told CQ Week - to Washington to be an independent split between Les Phillip and ,” ly. “In many instances it’s driving the voice, to put politics aside and to do says Christie Carden, who organized a primary way to the right.” 45 everything in my power to help create Tea Party group in Huntsville. So far, In some districts, Van Hollen sug - jobs for Massachusetts families,” Brown at least, she and her fellow members gested, primary victories by Tea Party- said after the vote. “This Senate jobs bill have not endorsed either candidate. style Republicans could spell victory is not perfect. I wish the tax cuts were Complicating matters, a third Re - for centrist Democrats. deeper and broader, but I voted for it publican is running because it contains mea - as well. Incumbent sures that will help put Parker Griffith was people .” 46 welcomed into the His words did noth - GOP fold after he ing to stem the tide of switched from De - rage that poured onto his mocrat to Republi - Facebook page — 4,200 e e L

can last December. comments in less than 24 e i

Party-establishment d hours after his Feb. 22 d e backing for Griffith r vote, the vast majority of F / makes sense, given s them furious. As gleeful - e g

the GOP’s interest in a ly documented by the lib - m I

providing a defector eral Huffington Post news y t t

with a favorable re - e site, the comments in - G

ception, says blogger a cluded “LYING LOW LIFE i v and Tennessee law SCUM HYPOCRITE!” and y a

professor Reynolds. d “YOU FAILED AT THE n u

But, he adds, “One S FIRST CHANCE” and

s

of the Tea Party com - w “You sir, are a sellout.” e N

plaints is that there is But Michael Graham, x

too much realpolitik ” o a radio talk-show host and F — or compromising Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., chairman of the influential House Boston Herald columnist — in the GOP es - Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, helps guide House in the Tea Party fold, tablishment. Democrats’ fundraising and strategizing. He thinks the Tea Party mocked the outrage. activists may be driving the Republicans to the right and that Elsewhere, even primary victories by Tea Party-style Republicans could spell “This is still Massachusetts,” where Tea Party can - victory for centrist Democrats in November. Graham wrote. “Brown didates might have will have to win a gen - traction, Republican organizations won’t eral election to keep this seat. . . . This necessarily welcome them with open Political Realities one, relatively insignificant vote sent a arms. “The Republican Party in Penn - powerful message to casual, Democrat- sylvania is pretty good at controlling resh from his victory in Massachu - leaning voters that Brown isn’t in the its side of the ballot,” says Dan F setts, Sen. Brown is now a certified GOP bag. . . . It’s brilliant politics.” 47 Hirschorn, editor and publisher of the hero to Republicans, especially the Tea Graham is a political veteran, unlike Philadelphia-based political news site Party movement, which worked its heart many tea partiers. The movement, in pa2010. “When . . . Tea Party candi - out for him. Brown’s victory was made fact, prides itself on its many political dates are in a race where there al - all the sweeter by its location in the neophytes. “These are not people,” Tea ready are establishment Republicans, heart of blue-state America. But his first Party activist Freire, the Washington Ex - the political landscape the Tea Party vote on has conservatives aminer editor, said at the Washington candidates face is really formidable.” talking about political realities. panel discussion in February, “who are Democrats view the tension between Less than three weeks after he for - used to getting engaged in the process.” party professionals and conservative mally took office on Feb. 4, Brown joined Although the panel discussion pre - insurgents as a potential advantage. four other Republicans in voting for a ceded Brown’s vote by about a week,

258 CQ Researcher it delved into the tension between special election to fill a newly vacated third party was created on Reid’s be - principles and pragmatism that sur - “safe” GOP House seat, the choice of half to siphon Republican votes. But faced after Brown’s move. Other con - a Republican legislator raised the hack - the candidate said by mail, “I am not servative lawmakers also have disap - les of conservatives nationwide, who for Harry Reid. . . . pointed conservative backers, Freire viewed her as too liberal on abortion My candidacy is real.” The Reid cam - noted. Rep. , R-Wis., Freire and gay rights. Instead, they backed a paign didn’t return a call to the Times ’ said, “is a pretty reliable guy when it Conservative Party candidate — who reporter. 51 Whatever the sincerity of the comes to his ; he eventually lost to Democrat Owens. His Nevada Tea Party, grassroots conserva - still voted for the bailout.” backers included the onetime Repub - tives elsewhere who are disenchanted lican candidate , who with the GOP argue that the best course denounced what she viewed as be - is to fight within the party. “Use the Re - Third-Party Option trayal by the GOP. 48 publican Party to your advantage,” Chica - “This election represents a double go tea partier Eric Odom wrote on his emocrats are nourishing the fond blow for national Republicans and their blog. “Move in and take it over.” 52 D if unlikely hope that the Tea hopes of translating this summer’s Tea Party will turn into a full-fledged po - Party energy into victories at the bal - litical party. “[That] would have a neg - lot box,” Van Hollen, the Democratic ative effect on Republicans, as would Congressional Campaign Committee 49 OUTLOOK threatening to do that and influencing chairman, said. Republican candidates to move further In New York state, Conservative to the right,” says Neil Oxman of Party candidate Hoffman’s backers in - Philadelphia, cofounder of The Cam - cluded Sarah Palin and former Rep. Short Life? paign Group political consulting firm. of Texas, a Tea Party boost - For that reason, the third-party idea er and former House Republican leader n the hyperspeed political environ - has not caught fire among tea partiers. who is president of FreedomWorks, a I ment, evaluating the 10-year prospects “We don’t need another party,” says Washington-based activist-training or - for a newly emerged movement is an Carden, the Huntsville organizer. “We ganization whose politics run along iffy proposition. Still, a consensus is emerg - just need to use the vehicles for po - Tea Party lines. ing that the Tea Party’s ideas will last litical change that are already there.” The New York debacle was followed longer than the movement itself. History points to that course as the by Brown’s triumph in Massachusetts. “These ideas are endemic in Amer - most promising. Socialists, conserva - That Brown ran as a Republican seemed ican political culture,” says Sides of tives, libertarians and other political to confirm the wisdom of channeling George Washington University. “Whether movements have long used third-party Tea Party activism into GOP campaigns. we will be able to attach them to a campaigns to build national support Republican strategy guru , movement or an organization we call or at least publicize their ideas. Win - the top campaign and White House the Tea Party is an open question.” ning the White House isn’t the goal. adviser to former President George W. Georgia Tea Party activist Martin ac - In state races, candidates outside Bush, is warning Tea Party groups to knowledges the movement may dissolve the two major parties have won, though stay in the Republican fold. “There’s a over the next decade. “If there isn’t a such cases at the moment can be count - danger from them,” he told USA Today movement 10 years from now, I hope ed on one hand. Sen. Bernard Sanders recently, “particularly if they’re used by it’s faded away because people under - of Vermont, a socialist who ran as an political operators . . . to try and hi - stand what the country’s core values are independent, is serving his first Sen - jack” elections. 50 and don’t need to be reminded.” ate term after 16 years in the House. Rove could have had Nevada in Whatever the state of national con - Another senator, lifelong Connecticut mind. There, a candidate from the “Tea sciousness in the near future, the life Democrat Joseph I. Lieberman, is tech - Party of Nevada” has filed to oppose cycle of social movements in their most nically an independent, but he dropped Senate Majority Leader Reid in the influential phase arguably has never that affiliation after losing a primary GOP primary. been very long, even before the pace race to an opponent. Leaders of Nevada’s Tea Party of modern life quickened to its present The outcome of a bitter political movement told the conservative Wash - pace. “In their dynamic, growing, in - fight in upstate New York last November ington Times that they don’t recognize spirational, ‘we-can-change-the-world’ would seem to confirm the two-party the names on the Tea Party of Neva - stage, they last five to seven years,” says strategy as best for Republicans. In a da filing documents. They claimed the Kazin of Georgetown University.

www.cqresearcher.com March 19, 2010 259 TEA PARTY MOVEMENT

The labor union movement’s high , high-profile editor of point ran from 1933 to 1938, Kazin says. Online , urged conserv - Notes And the civil rights movement in its atives during the America’s Future Foun - 1 Kathleen Hennessey, “Justice’s wife launches nationwide, unified phase ran from just dation panel discussion in February to ‘tea party’ group,” Times , March 14, 1960 to 1965. “And those were move - come to terms with the nature of the 2010, www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/ ments that were more independent of political system. “The American people la-na-thomas142010mar14,0,3190750,full.story . a political party structure,” he adds. aren’t as conservative as we would like 2 Mark Leibovich, “Discipline Helped Carve As a movement closely linked to them to be, and they never will be,” he Path to Senate,” The New York Times , Jan. 21, the Republican Party, the Tea Party’s said, despite what seem to be favorable 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/us/politics/ future will depend greatly on the course conditions for the right that largely grow 21brown.html . of the 2010 elections, Kazin argues. out of the Tea Party’s success. 3 Zachary Ross, “Top Tea Partier, Husband, And which GOP candidates are nom - “Things are so much better than Owed IRS Half a Million Dollars,” Talking inated for president in 2012 will offer they seemed to be a little while ago,” Points Memo , Oct. 8, 2009, http://tpmmuck raker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/top_tea_ an even clearer gauge of the move - he continued. “Will Republicans blow partier_husband_owed_irs_half_a_million_do.php . ment’s influence. it? They have a great history of that. 4 Jeff Zeleny, “Daniels Offers Advice to Repub - Hawkins of Right Wing News thinks One of the things that movements do licans,” The New York Times , The Caucus (blog), he knows where the Tea Party will is try to keep politicians honest. That’s March 9, 2010, http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/ be in 10 years. “I tend to doubt it will going to be hard work because politi - 2010/03/09/daniels-offers-advice-to-republicans /. exist,” he says. “It will have been ab - cians are politicians.” 5 “Tom Tancredo’s Feb. 4 Tea party speech sorbed into the Republican Party.” Reynolds of the University of Ten - in Nashville,” Free Republic , Feb. 5, 2010, http:// But the University of Oregon’s Lown - nessee Law School acknowledges that freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2445943/posts . des argues that beyond the country’s the Tea Party’s promise may go un - 6 Cuéntame, www.facebook.com/cuentame?v= Republican strongholds, the Tea Party fulfilled. Conservative hopes ran high app_11007063052 . 7 won’t acquire enough influence to re - after the 1994 Republican takeover of John Maggs, “Norquist on Tea and Taxes,” , Feb. 4, 2010, http://insider configure the entire party. “It will Congress midway through the first Clin - interviews.nationaljournal.com/2010/02/-nj-were- shape politics in certain places, and ton administration, he notes. “But that you-surprised.php . shape the Republican Party, but it won’t didn’t have long-lasting legs.” 8 Ibid. Also see Tea Party Nation, teapartynation. take it over.” On the other hand, Reynolds says, com ; and Kate Zernike, “Seeking a Big Tent, For now, however, Lowndes cred - the Reagan legacy has been long- Tea Party Avoids Divisive Social Issues,” The its the Tea Party with effectively lasting. “And this is probably bigger,” New York Times , March 13, 2010, p. A1. pulling together strands of discontent. he says of the Tea Party. 9 John M. O’Hara, A New American Tea Party: “With enormous power concentrated But there are no guarantees, he cau - The Counterrevolution Against Bailouts, Hand - in the executive branch and in cor - tions. “A lot of people are involved in outs, Reckless Spending, and More Taxes (2010), porations, there is a sense of power - politics who never were before. In 10 pp. 256-257. 10 lessness at work that can be picked years, some will have gone back to “Rick Santelli Rant Transcript,” www.retea party.com/2009/02/19/rick-santelli-rant-transcript /. up and interpreted different ways by their lives. Of the people who stay in, 11 Ibid. ; Brian Stelter, “CNBC Replays Its Re - different folks,” he says. “These peo - the odds are that many will become porter’s Tirade,” The New York Times , Feb.23, ple have found a language for it that politicians as usual. The question is 2009, p. B7. the left has not.” how much this will happen.” 12 Mary Lou Pickel, “Tea Party at the Capitol,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Feb. 28, 2009; Aman Batheja, “Several hundred protest Obama About the Author stimulus program in Fort Worth,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram , Feb. 28, 2009; “Tea Party Peter Katel is a CQ Researcher staff writer who previ - Time,” , Feb. 28, 2009, p. 16; ously reported on Haiti and Latin America for Time and Tim O’Neil, “Riverfront tea party protest blasts and covered the Southwest for in Obama’s stimulus plan,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch , New Mexico. He has received several journalism awards, Feb. 28, 2009, p. A7; Christian M. Wade, “Tax including the Bartolomé Mitre Award for coverage of drug Protesters Converge on Federal Courthouse,” trafficking, from the Inter-American Press Association. He Tampa Tribune , Feb. 28, 2009, p. A4; “Protest - holds an A.B. in university studies from the University of ers bemoan stimulus funds at Tenn. Capitol,” New Mexico. His recent reports include “Press Freedom,” The , Feb. 28, 2009. “Hate Groups” and “Legalizing Marijuana.” 13 Kate Zernike, “Unlikely Activist Who Got to the Tea Party Early,” The New York Times ,

260 CQ Researcher Feb. 27, 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/ us/politics/28keli.html . 14 Quoted in David M. Halbfinger and Ian FOR MORE INFORMATION Urbina, “Republicans Bask in Glow of Vic - , www.coffeepartyusa.com . A new network of Tea Party opponents. tories in N.J. and Va.,” The New York Times , Coffee Party Nov. 5, 2009; Janet Hook, “Stimulus bill battle FreedomWorks , 601 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., North Building, Washington, DC 20004 ; is only the beginning,” , (202) 783-3870 ; www..org . Created by former House Republican Leader Feb. 15, 2009, p. A1. Dick Armey, the conservative organization trains local activists. 15 Quoted in Manu Raju, “Lindsey Graham Politics1 , 409 N.E. 17th Ave., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 ; www.politics1.com/index.htm . warns GOP against going too far right,” Politi - Comprehensive political site offering a guide to races involving Tea Party candidates. co , Nov. 4, 2009, www.politico.com/news/ stories/1109/29131.html . Right Wing News , rightwingnews.com . Independent Web site covers Tea Party 16 Chelsea Schilling, “ ‘Government wants to movement, often critically. be your one and only god,’ ” WorldNetDaily , Talkingpointsmemo , www.talkingpointsmemo.com . Democratic-oriented news Feb. 6, 2010, www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId= site provides critical but fact-based coverage of Tea Party. 124326 . 17 Jonathan Raban, “At the Tea Party,” New Tea Party Patriots , www.teapartypatriots.org . An extensive network of Tea Party York Review of Books , March 25, 2010, www.ny groups around the country offering movement news and views from its Web site. books.com/articles/23723 . 18 For background, see Peter Katel, “Press Free - 28 Todd Gitlin, The Sixties: Years of Hope, romneys_no_apology_is_not_light_reading? dom,” CQ Researcher , Feb. 5, 2010, pp. 97-120. Days of Rage (1993), pp. 348-351. mode=PF . 19 Quoted in , “Birther Speaker 29 Quoted in Kazin, op. cit. , p. 252. 42 Emily Cadei, “Sands of GOP Discord in Takes Heat at Tea Party Convention,” Wash - 30 Ibid. , pp. 234-235. Arizona,” Roll Call , Jan. 28, 2010. ington Independent , Feb. 6, 2010 (includes 31 Richard Pearson, “Former Ala. Gov. George 43 Quoted in Liz Sidoti, “Excited GOP: Energy audio clip of argument), http://washington C. Wallace Dies,” The Washington Post , Sept. 14, on the right, divisions within,” The Associated independent.com/75949/birther-speaker-takes- 1998, p. A1, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/ Press, Feb. 19, 2010. Adam Nagourney and Carl heat-at-tea-party-convention . politics/daily/sept98/wallace.htm . Hulse, “Re-energized, G.O.P. Widens Midterm 20 Except where otherwise indicated, this sub - 32 Rick Perlstein, Nixonland: The Rise of a Effort,” The New York Times , Jan. 25, 2010, p. A1; section is drawn from Michael Kazin, The Pop - President and the Fracturing of America (2008), Thomas Burr, “GOP’s Armey backs Lee, scolds ulist Persuasion: An American History (1998). pp. 631-632. Bennett,” Salt Lake Tribune , Feb. 18, 2010. 21 Quoted in Daniel Feller, “King Andrew and 33 Except where otherwise indicated, this sub - 44 Quoted in ibid. the Bank,” Humanities , National Endowment section draws from ibid. 45 Quoted in Joseph J. Schatz, “Reading the for the Humanities, January-February, 2008, www. 34 “George McGovern Interview,” The National Leaves,” CQ Weekl y, March 1, 2010, pp. 480-489. neh.gov/news/humanities/2008-01/KingAndrew World War II Museum, undated, www.national 46 Quoted in James Oliphant, “Scott Brown’s andtheBank.html . ww2museum.org/wwii-community/mcgovern. ‘tea party’ fans feel burned by jobs vote,” Los 22 “Bryan’s ‘Cross of Gold’ Speech: Mesmer - html . Angeles Times , Feb. 23, 2010, http://articles. izing the Masses,” History Matters , undated, 35 Quoted in Perlstein, op. cit. , pp. 732-733. latimes.com/2010/feb/23/nation/la-na-scott- http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354 /. 36 H. Ross Perot, “What Americans Must De - brown24-2010feb24 . 23 Steve Oney, “The Leo Frank case isn’t mand,” The Washington Post , March 29, 1992, 47 Michael Graham, “Still right cup of tea,” dead,” Los Angeles Times , Oct. 30, 2009, p. C2. Boston Herald , Feb. 25, 2010, www.boston http://articles.latimes.com/2009/oct/30/opinion/ 37 Quoted in John Dillin, “Possible Presidential herald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view.bg? oe-oney30 . Except where otherwise indicated, Bid by Perot Is Seen Posing a Threat to Bush,” articleid=1235356 . this subsection is drawn from Kazin, op. cit. The Christian Science Monitor , March 24, 1992, 48 Jeremy W. Peters, “Conservative Loses Up - 24 William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt p. 1 . state House Race in Blow to Right,” The New and the New Deal (1963), pp. 33, 255, 335-336. 38 Quoted in ibid. York Times , Nov. 3, 2009, www.nytimes.com/ 25 For background, see Peter Katel, “Hate Groups,” 39 John Mintz, “Perot Embodied Dismay of 2009/11/04/nyregion/04district.html?_r=1&scp= CQ Researcher , May 8, 2009, pp. 421-448. Millions,” The Washington Post , Nov. 4, 1992, 9&sq=HoffmanScozzafava&st=cse . 26 Douglas Martin, “William F. Buckley Jr., 82, p. A26; Jeffrey Schmalz, “Clinton Carves a 49 Quoted in ibid. Dies,” The New York Times , Feb. 28, 2008, p. A1. Wide Path Deep Into Clinton Country,” The 50 Judy Keen, “Rove: ‘Tea Party’ may be risk 27 Kazin, op. cit. , p. 193. For background on New York Times , Nov. 4, 1992, p. B1. to GOP,” USA Today , March 10, 2010, p. A1. the G.I. Bill, see “Record of 78th Congress 40 Thomas B. Edsall and E. J. Dionne, “White, 51 Quoted in Valerie Richardson, “New party (Second Session),” Editorial Research Reports , Younger, Lower-Income Voters Turn Against G.O.P.,” brings its own ‘tea’ to election,” The Wash - Dec. 20, 1944, available at CQ Researcher Plus The Washington Post , Nov. 4, 1992, p. A21. ington Times , Feb. 22, 2010, p. A1. Archive ; K. Lee, “War Veterans in Civil Life,” 41 Quoted in Sasha Issenberg, “In book, Rom - 52 Quoted in Kate Zernike, “In Power Push, Editorial Research Reports , Vol. II, 1946; and ney styles himself wonk, not warrior,” Boston Movement Sees Base in G.O.P.,” The New York William Triplett, “Treatment of Veterans,” CQ Globe , March, 2, 2010, www.boston.com/news/ Times , Jan. 15, 2010, p. A1. Researcher , Nov. 19, 2004, pp. 973-996. nation/washington/articles/2010/03/02/mitt_

www.cqresearcher.com March 19, 2010 261 Bibliography Selected Sources

Books Markon , Jerry , “ ‘Wired’ conservatives get the message out,” The Washington Post , Feb. 1, 2010 , p. A1 . Continetti , Matthew , The Persecution of Sarah Palin: Tea Party organizers made extensive use of social net - How the Elite Media Tried to Bring Down a , working tools and Republican connections in getting the , 2009 . movement up and running, a political correspondent reports. An editor of the conservative Weekly Standard chronicles the rise of Tea Party-friendly Palin from a sympathetic perspective. Naymik , Mark , “GOP stumbles with Tea Party as move - ment gains foothold,” Cleveland Plain Dealer , Feb. 21, Kazin , Michael , The Populist Persuasion: An American 2010 , p. A1 . History , Press , 1998 . A leading newspaper in a key political state reports on am - A Georgetown University historian traces the forms that an bivalent relations between tea partiers and the Republican Party. enduring American distrust of elites has taken. Parker , Kathleen , “The GOP’s misguided hunt for heretics,” O’Hara , John M. , A New American Tea Party: The Counter - The Washington Post , Feb. 24, 2010 , www.washingtonpost. revolution Against Bailouts, Handouts, Reckless Spend - com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/23/AR201002230 ing, and More Taxes , John & Sons , 2010 . 3783.html . A manifesto in book form by one of the first Tea Party A conservative columnist warns of a tendency to zealotry activists tells of the movement’s formation and ideas. and intolerance among tea partiers.

Perlstein , Rick , Nixonland: The Rise of a President and Rucker , Philip , “GOP woos wary ‘tea party’ activists,” the Fracturing of America , Scribner , 2008 . The Washington Post , Jan. 20, 2010 , p. A4 . A non-academic historian adds to the Tea Party story with Republican officials are courting Tea Party members, Wash - this account of Nixon and his appeal to the “silent majority.” ington’s leading newspaper reports.

Articles Sidoti , Liz , “Primary time: Let the political family feuds begin,” The Associated Press, Jan. 30, 2010 . Barstow , David , “Tea Party Lights Fuse for Rebellion on The Tea Party movement’s political strength will be tested in Right,” The New York Times , Feb. 15, 2010 , www.nytimes. some key primary elections, a political correspondent reports. com/2010/02/16/us/politics/16teaparty.html . A lengthy, detailed report traces the formation of a Tea Party Tanenhaus , Sam , “The Crescendo of the Rally Cry,” The undercurrent of conspiracists and militia members. New York Times , Jan. 24, 2010 , Week in Review, p. 1 . A Times editor who writes on the history of conservatism ex - Continetti , Matthew , “Sarah Palin and the Tea Party, Cont.,” amines the Tea Party movement in light of past populist surges. Weekly Standard , Feb. 8, 2010 , www.weeklystandard.com/ print/blogs/sarah-palin-and-tea-party-cont . Wilkinson , Howard , “Tea Partiers aim to remake local The author of a sympathetic book on Palin argues she made GOP,” Enquirer , Jan. 30, 2010 . a powerful case for herself as a 2012 presidential candidate. Tea partiers in southwest Ohio are making a concerted effort to take over Republican precinct organizations. Good , Chris , “Some Tea Partiers Question Meeting With Steele,” The Atlantic , Politics site, Feb. 16, 2010 , www.the Zernike , Kate , “Seeking a Big Tent, Tea Party Avoids Di - atlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/02/some-tea-partiers- visive Social Issues,” The New York Times , March 13, 2010 , question-meeting-with-steele/36027 /. p. A1 . Some Florida tea partiers questioned the movement creden - Some Tea Party activists deliberately bypass controversial so - tials of a political activist who organized a meeting with Michael cial issues, a correspondent specializing in the Tea Party reports. Steele, the controversial Republican national chairman. Reports Hennessey , Kathleen , “Justice’s wife launches ‘tea party’ group,” Los Angeles Times , March 14, 2010 , www.latimes. “AEI Political Report,” American Enterprise Institute for com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-thomas14-2010mar14, Public Policy Research , February 2010 , www.aei.org/doc 0,3190750,full.story . Lib/Political-Report-Feb-2010.pdf . This is the first report of the Tea Party activism of Virginia A compilation of survey results from a variety of sources Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. includes data on public knowledge of the Tea Party.

262 CQ Researcher The Next Step: Additional Articles from Current Periodicals

Elections Jonsson , Patrik , “: Could They Rally Change in Government?” The Christian Science Monitor , Fritze , John , “McCain Re-election Bid Faces Hurdle,” April 17, 2009 , p. 25 . USA Today , Feb. 15, 2010 , p. 2A . Impressive organizing efforts suggest to many political Radio talk-show host J. D. Hayworth plans to challenge experts that Tea Parties have the potential for a significant John McCain for his Senate seat, but it is unclear how much effect on government. support he will have from tea partiers. Slater , Wayne , “Tea Party Tax Protests Help Governor Man , Anthony , “ ‘Tea Party’ Faces Big Test in November Build National Persona,” Dallas Morning News , April 17, Elections,” , Jan. 4, 2010 , p. A12 . 2009 , p. 3A . The Tea Party movement could become a permanent, game- Tea Party protests have given Texas Republican Gov. Rick changing force in American politics. Perry a platform to rally the party’s conservative base.

Rucker , Philip , “Tea Party Leaders Will Meet With Steele,” Sarah Palin The Washington Post , Feb. 16, 2010 , p. A2 . Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is Hennessey , Kathleen , “Palin: Tea Party Needs No Leader,” courting Tea Party support for the midterm elections. Sun-Sentinel (South Florida), Feb. 7, 2010 , p. 19A . Sarah Palin says the burgeoning Tea Party movement should Zernike , Kate , “Republicans Strain to Ride Tea Party remain leaderless and decentralized, calling the effort “bigger Tiger,” The New York Times , Jan. 23, 2010 , p. A1 . than any king or queen.” Republicans want to harness the Tea Party’s energy to make gains in statehouses and Congress in the next election. Rucker , Philip , and Ann Gerhart , “With Speech, Palin Bounds Back on the Political Stage,” The Washington Post , Health Care Feb. 7, 2010 , p. A1 . Sarah Palin’s speech before Tea Party activists may have Millhollon , Michelle , “Vitter Addresses Tea Party Session firmly reestablished her as a politician to be considered for on Health Care,” The Advocate , Jan. 13, 2010 , p. B1 . national office. Sen. ’s, R-La., pledge to back a constitutional challenge to the national health-care bill has proved popular Sidoti , Liz , “Palin Tells ‘Tea Party’: It’s Revolution Time,” among Tea Party activists. The Associated Press , Feb. 7, 2010 . The Tea Party makes up a seemingly natural constituency Mobley , Scott , “Rally for the Right,” Record Searchlight for Sarah Palin if she decides to run for president. (California), Oct. 29, 2009 , p. B1 . Tea Partiers have urged followers to vote out senators and con - gressmen who support Obama’s proposed health-care reforms. CITING CQ RESEARCHER Ramati , Phillip , “Hundreds Attend Macon Tea Party Sample formats for citing these reports in a bibliography Against Obama Health-Care Reform Plan,” Macon (Georgia) Telegraph , Aug. 26, 2009 . include the ones listed below. Preferred styles and formats Tea Party activists in Macon, Ga., argue that health-care vary, so please check with your instructor or professor. reform is necessary, but not with government control. MLA STYLE Wagman , Jake , “Tea Party Gathers Steam,” St. Louis Jost, Kenneth. “Rethinking the Death Penalty.” CQ Researcher Post-Dispatch , Aug. 9, 2009 , p. A1 . 16 Nov. 2001: 945-68. Burgeoning public opposition to health-care reform has given the Tea Party movement a more broad-based appeal. APA S TYLE Protests Jost, K. (2001, November 16). Rethinking the death penalty. CQ Researcher, 11 , 945-968. Carpenter , Amanda , “Tax-Day Protests Across Nation Set to Send Message,” , April 14, 2009 , CHICAGO STYLE p. B1 . Jost, Kenneth. “Rethinking the Death Penalty.” CQ Researcher , Boston Tea Party-inspired protests of increased federal spend - November 16, 2001, 945-968. ing are cropping up across the country.

www.cqresearcher.com March 19, 2010 263 In-depth Reports on Issues in the News

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CQ Researcher Online offers a backfile from 1991 and a number of tools to simplify research. For pricing information, call 800-834-9020, ext. 1906, or e-mail [email protected]. Updated May 23, 2011 www.cqresearcher.com Tea Party Movement Here are key events, legislation and court rulings since publication of the CQ Researcher report by Peter Katel, “Tea Party Movement,” March 19, 2010.

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tion joined with a small group Instead, House leaders have sig - e

A d of fellow conservatives in early May to naled they’re willing to go along with n a M denounce Washington politicians in the raising the “debt ceiling,” the limit on / s e name of the Tea Party. Nothing sur - how much government can borrow. g a prising in that — except that the politi - “This debt limit . . . provides the m I

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cians under attack are Republicans. perfect opportunity to substantially t e

“Yes, we’ve been deeply disap - reduce the size and scope of the G / P pointed,” said William Temple of federal government,” said Bob Vander F Brunswick, Ga., at a Washington news Plaats, vice chair of a Tea Party con - A Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-Minn., chair of the Tea conference. He named House Speak - vention scheduled for City Party Caucus in the House, reflects the Tea Party’s er , R-Ohio, as the main in October. A loser in last year’s Re - independence from mainstream Republicans: She delivered a response to President Obama’s State of the source of disenchantment. “Mr. Boehn - publican gubernatorial pri mary in Union address separate from the official GOP response. er has been a ‘surrenderist’ who waves Iowa, Vander Plaats remains a top the white flag before the first shots political player in a state whose to the House. The Senate remains in are fired.” Temple, wearing a tricorner early primaries are a critical early test the hands of a Democratic majority hat, boots and other 18th-century garb, for presidential candidates. 54 though Republicans gained six seats. 55 leaned his musket against a wall when Speaker Boehner, who presides over he took to the lectern at the Nation - Testing Time the House GOP majority, seemed to al Press Club in Washington. 53 The Tea Party’s ability to sustain the confirm the Tea Party activists’ in - The episode was one of many support it gathered last November will creasingly dire view of him in a marking the complicated follow-up to be tested as well. Tea Party members speech he gave on the evening fol - Tea Party-driven Republican election and sympathizers played a major part lowing their press conference. As they successes in 2010. Temple and his in helping shift control of the House expected, he signaled willingness to half-dozen companions vowed that to a 242-193 Republican majority — approve a debt-ceiling increase. But Boehner, House Budget Committee about 30 of whom had been endorsed in a nod to the Tea Party, he condi - Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and other by Tea Party groups. That victory, which tioned approval on trillions of dollars House Republicans would pay a po - followed months of demonstrations, of cuts in federal spending. 56 litical price if they defied demands marches and frenetic organizing activi - Whether that would satisfy the ac - of the loose-knit Tea Party movement. ty by Tea Party members, was limited tivists remains to be seen. Joining with

PUBLISHED BY CQ PRESS, A DIVISION OF SAGE WWW.CQPRESS.COM TEA PARTY MOVEMENT

their staunchest congressional allies, they their power. “The standards they set others more closely identified with the had previously failed in an effort to for themselves in terms of budget cut - movement, Brown didn’t join the Sen - convince Boehner and other leaders to ting and deficit reduction were very ate . And, asked if refuse to reach a temporary budget high, and the expectations were un - he was a Tea Party member, he told compromise with the Senate and White realistic,” said Robert Bixby, executive USA Today , “No, I’m a Republican from House. The move averted a govern - director of the Concord Coalition, a Massachusetts.” 60

Pressure to Deliver For their part, Tea Party-backed lawmakers have expressed frustration at being hemmed in on one side by Democratic opposition in the Senate, and on the other by political com - mitments to constituents. “If we don’t do a real serious job with spending these next two years, then I think that voters in my district will feel that I didn’t deliver,” Rep. Joe Walsh, R- Ill., a freshman who was part of the Tea Party wave of House members in last n

o 61

s year’s election, said in January. l O

t By early May, Walsh was echoing t o

c activists’ criticisms of Republican House S /

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a their abandonment of a proposal to m I transform Medicare, the program of y t t

e government subsidies of health-care G Sporting patriotic red, white and blue, a Tea Party supporter attends a Tax Day costs for the elderly. Under a plan that rally in Chicago on April 18, 2011, calling for massive government spending the House passed in March, senior citi - cuts and tax reform. Tea Party members have been angry at House Republican zens (starting in 2022) would get vouch - leaders for signaling they may support raising the nation’s debt ceiling. ers to buy private insurance. 62 “I would be very disappointed if we didn’t follow through,” Walsh said, after ment shutdown. But Rep. , nonpartisan organization directed by top Republicans indicated they wouldn’t R-Ind. had urged holding fast. “It’s time members of the political establishment try to push the Medicare plan any fur - to pick a fight!” he had told a small that advocates spending cuts. “Some ther. A fellow Tea Party Republi - rally outside the Capitol. “If liberals in of the leaders in the House, Boehner can, Rep. , went further. the Senate want to play political games and Ryan, do have a bit of a prob - Giving up on the proposal, he said, . . ., I say shut it down.” 57 lem in trying to write a tough and re - would amount to surrendering “to lies alistic budget that can get done, and and deceit told by the other side.” 63 ‘Unrealistic Expectations’ tamping down some of the unrealis - But the Medicare proposal was turn - In another show of Tea Party in - tic expectations,” Bixby told the Los ing into a rallying cry for Democrats, dependence from the Republicans, Rep. Angeles Times. 59 as well as for some Medicare benefi - , R-Minn., chair of And Tea Party strategists may have ciaries who had voted for Republicans the Tea Party Caucus in the House, overestimated the movement’s appeal in 2010. Republican lawmakers came delivered a response to President outside its red-state, suburban base. face-to-face with that reality at town Obama’s State of the Union address Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., who scored hall meetings they held in their dis - separate from the official Republican a stunning victory last year in a special tricts during the spring recess. Some of response. 58 election for the seat of the late Sen. Ed - those meetings turned into role-reversed Political observers have been argu - ward M. “Ted” Kennedy, a Democratic versions of constituent meetings in 2009, ing that politicians who identify with icon, has taken pains to distance him - at which Tea Party opposition to the the Tea Party may have overestimated self from the movement. Along with administration’s health-care legislation Chronology

Tea Party Caucus; only four Indiana urges House leaders 2010 senators join Senate counterpart. negotiating with the Senate and White House to maintain November — Tea Party Jan. 25 — House Tea Party demands for major spending protests and marches provide Caucus Chair Michele cuts even at cost of shutting momentum to Republican Bachmann, R-Minn., delivers down government. candidates who win a decisive response to president’s State of House majority, though Senate the Union speech that is April 28 — Arizona Legislature remains majority-Democrat. separate from official authorizes Tea Party license plates, Republican response. but some movement members • oppose the move as government Feb. 22 — Newly elected Sen. intrusion. Scott Brown, R-Mass., declines to 2011 join Tea Party Caucus in Senate. May 9 — Group of Tea Party leaders attacks House Republican Jan. 5 — Congress convenes with March 31 — Tea Party leaders for willingness to accept more than 50 House members in Republican Mike Pence of raising the national debt limit.

seized the headlines and spurred the Yet, as they continue marking a dis - “The GOP is on probation,” the or - movement’s rapid growth. tance between themselves and the Re - ganization’s chair, , told publican establishment, Tea Party mem - The Atlantic , “because under President Signs of Discord bers are showing signs of discord within Bush they spent a lot of money, and At this year’s meetings, however, their movement. added $3 trillion to the national debt.” crowds turned out to grill and heckle In Arizona, some Tea Party mem - She added, “You will see that the Tea Republicans who had voted for the bers have rallied against the creation of Party will have no problem whatso - Medicare plan. A woman in Racine, automobile license plates emblazoned ever challenging the very freshmen Wis., attending a meeting held by Rep. with a Revolutionary War slogan they’ve they put in.” 67 Ryan, the author of the plan, held up adopted — “Don’t Tread on Me.” Tea a sign that read, “We use up the vouch - Party groups can sell the tags to raise — Peter Katel er, and then what?” In Orlando, shouts money. But, Tea Party member Jim Wise and arguments over Tea Party Re - of Surprise, Ariz., isn’t buying one. “I publican Rep. Daniel Webster’s sup - realize the people behind this had the Notes port for the plan grew so loud that best of intentions,” he said, “but it goes Webster at one point quit talking. 64 against what we stand for, which is lim - Not all town meetings turned rau - ited government.” 66 53 For a video of the press conference, see cous. But the Medicare plan seemed Despite such rifts, there’s little “Federal Debt Ceiling and Debt,” C-Span, to be turning into a liability. Even after doubt that Tea Party movement sup - May 9, 2011, www.c-span.org/Events/Tea-Party- top Republicans backed away from the porters do agree on the issue of fed - Activists-Take-on-GOP-on-Deficit/10737421394-1 /. 54 proposal, Democrats vowed to keep eral spending. The anti-Boehner press Ibid. ; Kerry Howley, “The Road to Iowa exploiting the issue. “The Republicans conference was only one sign of Tea is Paved With Pizza,” The New York Times , March 11, 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/ are slowly realizing their plan to pri - Party members’ determination on that magazine/mag-13YouRHere-t.html?scp=1&sq= vatize Medicare is a political disaster,” score, expressed as resistance to a debt- %22Bob%20vander%20Plaats%22&st=cse ; Joshua said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., ceiling increase. The Tea Party Ex - Green, “The Iowa Caucus Kingmaker, ” The At - a spokesman for Senate Democrats. press, one of the movement’s nation - lantic , May 2011, www.theatlantic.com/maga “But until they renounce their vote for al organizations, was planning a national zine/archive/2011/05/the-iowa-caucus-king it, they are still going to own it.” 65 TV ad campaign on that theme. maker/8446 /. TEA PARTY MOVEMENT

55 Rick Rojas, “Last midterm House, gover - 2011, p. A1. 64 Mike Schneider and Dinesh Ramde, “Con - nor races end,” Los Angeles Times , Dec. 9, 60 Quoted in Susan Page, “Sen. Brown keeps gressional Republicans go home to mixed re - 2010, p. A24. ‘an open mind,’ ” USA Today , Feb. 21, 2011, views,” The Associated Press, April 26, 2011. 56 Carl Hulse, “Boehner Outlines Demands p. A4. 65 Quoted in Hulse and Calmes, op. cit. on Debt Limit Fight,” The New York Times , 61 Quoted in ibid. 66 Quoted in Marc Lacey, “In Arizona, Tea Party May 9, 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/ 62 Noam N. Levey, “Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare License Plate Draws Opposition From its Hon - us/politics/10boehner.html?_r=1&ref=politics . privatization plan increases costs, budget office orees,” The New York Times , May 4, 2011, 57 Quoted in Doyle McManus, “No party for says,” Los Angeles Times , April 7, 2011, http:// www.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/us/05plates.html . John Boehner,” Los Angeles Times , April 3, 2011, articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/07/nation/la-na- 67 Eliza Newlin Carney, “Tea Party Puts the p. A28. gop-budget-20110408 . Screws to House Republicans Over Debt Ceil - 58 David A. Farenthold, “Republicans decry 63 Quoted in Carl Hulse and Jackie Calmes, ing,” The Atlantic.com , May 9, 2011, www. debt, offer few detailed fixes,” The Washing - “G.O.P. Rethinking Bid to Overhaul Medicare theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/05/tea- ton Post , Jan. 26, 2011, p. A9. Rules,” The New York Times , May 5, 2011, www. party-puts-the-screws-to-house-republicans- 59 Quoted in Lisa Mascaro, “Cracks show as nytimes.com/2011/05/06/us/politics/06fiscal. over-debt-ceiling/238640 /. Update GOP tackles budget,” Los Angeles Times , Jan. 25, html?ref=politics .

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