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Humaniora, Vol. 25, No. 3 Oktober 2013: 324-333HUMANIORA

VOLUME 25 No. 3 Oktober 2013 Halaman 324-333

AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT OF THE TEA PARTY IN 2009: A CONCEPT OF FOUNDING

Didik Murwantono*

ABSTRAK Kebangkitan pergerakan kelompok konservatif Amerika seperti The Tea Party pada awal tahun 2009 menjadi suatu fenomena atas reaksi perlawanan terhadap kebijakan pemerintahan Obama. Kemunculan pergerakan kelompok konservatif Amerika tidak pernah sama namun tetap mempertahankan tradisi mereka. Menurut sejarah, kelompok ini muncul dan tenggelam. Penelitian ini menawarkan suatu konsep mengenai founding yang berhubungan dengan perubahan sosial serta transformasi politik terhadap fenomena The Tea Party tersebut. Secara metode, penelitian ini menitik beratkan pada jenis penelitian kualitatif deskriptif dengan pendekatan urutan peristiwa dalam sejarah melalui teori Pendiri dan teori Perubahan Sosial. Pergerakan kelompok konservatif ini biasanya tidak pernah sukses dalam pencapaian targetnya; bagaimanapun kelompok ini memberikan pengaruh terhadap kebijakan pemerintah dan partai politik yang ada di Amerika. Pergerakan kelompok konservatif dikenal tidak konsisten merupakan hal yang nyata dan kelompok ini akan tetap terus ada di masa mendatang.

Kata Kunci: Obama, pendiri, pergerakan konservatif Amerika, perubahan sosial, the Tea Party

ABSTRACT The awakening of American conservative movement like The Tea Party in the beginning of 2009 was a phenomenon as a reaction against Obama‘s Democratic presidency. American conservative movements have never been the same but they maintain a strong tradition. Historically, they have emerged and then died out. This research offers a concept of ‘founding’ for dealing with social changes and the political transformation of The Tea Party phenomenon. It adopts descriptive qualitative methods and applies Event Structure Analysis supported by Founding and Social Change theories. In general, American conservative movements have never been successful; however they have affected policy changes within the government and the political parties in the . They are known to be inconsistent, yet it seems likely that they will continue to evolve.

Keywords: American conservative movement, founding, Obama, social change, the Tea Party

INTRODUCTION events in American history gave deep impacts has long been embedded in on the movement of American conservatism. the hearts of Americans. They have used this term Therefore, the term ‘conservatism’ has had different since the beginning of the eighteenth century to implications in varying historical contexts. It refer to traditional conservatives like strong work denotes a preference for institutions and practices ethics and Christian-Protestant. Some prominent that have evolved historically and that are thus

* English Department, College of Languages, Sultan Agung Islamic University, Semarang

324 Didik Murwantono - American Conservative Movement of the Tea Party in 2009 manifestations of continuity and stability. They aim acquisitions while hampering antisocial impulses. If to preserve traditional political arrangements, but they consistently aim at what is evil, then tradition only those that are conducive to what they consider can not help them much, but neither can anything good lives. else short of Divine intervention. Conservatives do The concept of maintaining traditional values not reject thought but are skeptical of its autonomy. such as Christian-Protestant, , They believe that tradition guides and corrects and strong work ethic and customs inherited from thought, and so brings it closer to truth, which has generation to generation, rather than creating no special connection with any private view. and adopting new values is the tradition of In the eighteenth century, the Western world conservatism. Therefore, American traditions faced the phenomenon of the Enlightenment. It from the settlers were derived from Puritans, not was a cultural movement of intellectuals which aristocracy, England. The tradition was informed tended to reform society using reason, challenged by the experience of an essentially homogenous ideas grounded in tradition and faith, and advanced people governing themselves under God’s ultimate knowledge through the scientific method, first in authority by their deliberate sense. Maru (2012:28) Europe and later in the American colonies. It was says that “the jeremiad filled the Puritan tradition sparked by philosophers John Locke (1632-1704), in its role to preserve the value of the community Voltaire (1694-1778), Montesquieu (1689-1755), and to guide them to arrive at the shared-dream.” and Rousseau (1712-1778). It influenced American This can also be inferred from the etymology of the founding fathers including Alexander Hamilton and word ‘conservative’, which comes from the Latin Thomas Jefferson, both of whom played a major ‘Conservere’, which means to maintain and keep. role in the , American political Robert W. Cox (1967:23) notes that “the strength parties, and the writing of the American Declaration of conservatism has strong roots in a society that of Independence and the United States’ Bill of values the rules and customs.” Rights. Conservatives are most content with the American founding fathers both Alexander status quo. They are pleased with the system and Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson are viewed more are not interested in a great deal of change. They than an authoritative event--signing a Constitution, will support extremely slow and very superficial government offices, and historical buildings--, alteration of the system, but often will resist they are a continued process of contestation, even seemingly minor changes. In relation to the construction, re-appropriation and struggle. changes, Leon P. Baradat (1979:12) states that Bernal (2008:2) states that “a founding lives not “conservatives are seemingly closed to retrogressive in the past, but in the present. It is not a birth, but change referring to a return to a policy or institution a conflict-ridden beginning.” In short, a founding that has been used by that society in the past.” has continued life because it is a central past of the Conservatives tend to see an intrinsic value in self-understanding of a political community. And as existing institutions and are unwilling to tamper this self-understanding and the composition of the with them, claiming that to do so might seriously community changes, so does the founding. damage that which tradition has perfected. Therefore, a founding is not merely an event, Since tradition is humanly, it may reflect but also a concept. As a concept, founding is an human vices as well as virtues. The issue, therefore, idea made up of many other ideas. To adopt two is not whether tradition is perfect but its appropriate insights, one from the philosopher Immanuel Kant place in human life. Tradition will benefit and another form the sociologist Max Weber, Americans by linking their thoughts and actions to founding, I will argue, operates simultaneously as a steady and comprehensive system in which they a regulative type and an ideal type. As a regulative can correct each other. It will secure and refine their ideal, founding can serve as a metric by which

325 Humaniora, Vol. 25, No. 3 Oktober 2013: 324-333 individuals may judge existing practices or orient Federalist and Alexander Hamilton as Federalist their actions or expectations (Gruyer and Wood are very necessary to describe the American 1996:6). As an ideal type, founding may affix conservatism movement. itself as a dominant model for political practice This research adopts descriptive qualitative (Mills and Gerth 1946:65). Based on Kantian methods. Two types of data were used: primary and Weberian concepts, founding is a historically and secondary. The primary data included literary situated idea, comprised of other contested and ever works, observations, interviews, and discussions changing ideas, some more dominant than others, with some experts in USA, whereas the secondary but all fighting to be heard (Bernal, 2008:2-3). data included books, journals, articles, essays, Based on the description of founding above, newspapers, websites and other theoretical writings founding can serve as a tool for change. It is dealing with the research topic. Three prominent hence not just a single regulative ideal or ideal works –The Notes on Virginia, Democracy in type, but also a historical construct, an idea that America, and Papers—are used to is constructed according to the changing social investigate the ideas of American conservatism and political needs of a particular society. And as from founding to the Tea Party as the culmination a historical construct, it takes from primarily as of the development of American conservatism narratives and imaginaries, that is to say, it occurs under Obama’s administration through the narratives, which live in the political This research employs Event Structure imagination of a people. According to Taylor Analysis (ESA) to analyze changes brought about (2004:23), the social imaginary consists of “the by government. The change from traditional ways people imagine their social existence, how society to industrial society brought some social they fit together with others, how things go on and cultural changes, mainly from traditional between them and their fellows, the expectations conservative to modern conservative. The analysis that are normatively met and the deeper normative is focused on Obama’s policies towards life, notions and imagines that underlie these politics and government, society and culture, expectations.” This social imagination is transmitted and economics in line with the movement of through images, stories and legends. American conservatism. Moreover, government American conservatism is itself as a cultural programs often involve a structured set of artifact. It is a product from cultural work and procedures in which problem definition, planning, cultural ideas. Therefore, American conservatism implementation, and evaluation are undertaken. follows the characteristic of culture as a dynamic Therefore, this research approaches the pattern. Therefore, ideas of conservatives can be American founding from a critical historiography traced from founding with a holistic view from perspective. Mainly, it connects with the ways in politics, economy, sociology, and culture. which the American founding has been studied Furthermore, American conservative in order to understand not what the American movement can be traced by studying phenomena founding is, but instead what it might have meant in American society like the Tea Party in 2009. at different points in meanings. Such an analysis The movement of American conservatism consists entails foremost changing the terms with which of a situation in which two or more people are Americans conceptualizes the American Founding: in relation to each other. In most, if not in all, from an historical event and a set of facts fixed in situations, people react as complete human beings, the past, towards conceptualizing it as a dynamic they react as members of a given society and of and contested idea that is constructed in different particular groups within it, as holders of certain ways to serve different political and social needs. beliefs, values, and ideas. Therefore, ideas from Founding can be acted as a mythology figure American founding like Thomas Jefferson as Anti- while his ideas can be used as a model to overcome

326 Didik Murwantono - American Conservative Movement of the Tea Party in 2009 some crisis. The Economic Downturn of 2008 According to Sargent (1972: 1), “Ideology provides forced Obama to take along with some the believer with a picture of the world both as it is policies causing the existence of the Tea Party and as it should be, and, in so doing, … organize the movement. This conservative movement like tremendous complexity of the world into something the Tea Party is very similar to past unsuccessful fairly simple and understandable.” political parties and will eventually meet the same One of the major themes of this research is fate as its predecessors. Another uniqueness is that that ideologies actually attempt to develop political American conservatism has never been the same accommodations to the economic and social but maintains a strong tradition. conditions created by the Industrial Revolution. At first, ideologies were made necessary by the FOUNDING, IDEOLOGY, AND CONCEPT Renaissance belief that people could improve the This section deals with a major thesis that conditions in which they lived through taking founding can not be separated from ideology. They positive action instead of passively accepting life are inter-related. Ideologies emerged from the Age as it came. This new belief was accompanied by of Reason or the Enlightenment era in America, the great economic and social upheaval caused by which in turn, developed from the early stages of the mechanization of production. Social class and the Industrial Revolution in Europe as well as in social status dominated in an industrial society America. The birth of Enlightenment leading to around the eighteenth century. In order to get better Industrial Revolution and modernity changed the understanding about the ideology, it would better roles of government toward economics like the compare it with philosophy (see Table 1 below). ideology of capitalism. The United States also Table 1 had the same experiences. America entered into The Difference between Ideology and Philosophy the modernity with the same characteristic that (Source: Leon P.Baradat. Political Ideologicies: every modern political system is motivational; that Their Origins and Impact. 2nd ed. is, the leaders attempt to mobilize their citizens to New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1984:9-10) accomplish the political, economic, and social Ideology Philosophy goals of the society. The United States is all Stresses more on political Focuses more on morality intensely interested in involving their citizens in meaning exaggeration efforts to accomplish the objectives of the state. Is simplistic and shallow. Tends to be profound. It Usually, ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ tries to analyze the totality Consequently, modern ideologies call upon people are made very clear, and of human experience to join in collective efforts. people are simply asked to fi nd the meaning to believe in them and act contained therein The social changes in the Industrial Revolution accordingly were from a modern society in America in the early Interprets present and views Interprets past and present nineteenth century. It changed from traditional the future and views the future. agricultural society to modern industrial society. In Has specifi c steps to improve Tends toward introversion. relation to the ideology, modern society is complex people lives. It is egocentric It is to explain the and often contradictory. Hence, individuals within and change-oriented The universe and to help universe must be modifi ed people fi nd their places in a society may not accept a single ideology; they and molded better conform it as well as harmony in may appropriate parts of several ideologies, or they to the people. the universe. may become completely attached to a single idea Is Oriented toward masses, Can be set of principles system. Sargent (1972) approaches the definition for the mass mobilization upon which an entire society or by a single of ideology differently. He sees ideologies as based individual on the value systems of various societies. In any Simply stated can be It is rather complex event, Sargent makes the point that ideologies are understand by ordinary in comprehending the simplistic in their approach to solving problems. people meaning

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According to the French scholar Destutt de conservatives processes of political change is said to Tracy, ideology is also a study of the process be legitimated through the deliberate founding of a of forming idea. He also believed that ideas are constitutional state. This American founding is said stimulated by the physical environment. There are to be the apex of democracy, a non-violent moment two aspects of Tracy’s theories should be noted of self-creation by the people, a new beginning here. They are materialism and social as well as which demarcates the coming into being of a political improvement. Tracy claims that thought democratic community. This means that a founding is stimulated by material things only with the has emerged as a democratic ideal, a desired formation of an idea as a physical rather than a political good. Like other contemporary political spiritual or mystical process. If we correlate Tracy’s values such as democracy, equality, and freedom, ideas with some big cases, mainly in the U.S., it is founding in the contemporary context has become noted that materialism is a dominant theme in the an object of longing, something to strive for. concept of ideology. And the second significant Founding as a democratic ideal is a specific aspect of Tracy’s idea is that social and political vision for establishing and ordering political improvement was its main goal. Hence, ideology communities, a vision which is based on a set of has been closely thereby attempt to improve idealizations largely shaped by a conception of the human life. Therefore, there is a closed-relationship American founding as an authoritative event. Bernal between ideology and political connotation. (2008:26) said “The idea of the imagination is a The theory above can be correlated with key component of the conceptual transformation of a prominent political figure in Europe, Alexis founding. Positing the founding not as an act but as de Tocqueville and American founding fathers, an object of imagination allows us to more critically –Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton– engage with this concept than traditional approaches The study of founding as an idea, concept, and afford.” construct is closed to the definition of founding as American conservative movement of the the birth or origin of a human political community Tea Party offered the concept of imagination to and its authority through deliberate establishment. depict the term of social imagination. It focuses on By using this definition, then various conceptions ideas of traditional conservative and liberal classic of founding can be differentiated with the main tradition from three prominent figures from history: division being classical against modern visions as Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Alexis expressed in the dominant narratives of founding de Tocqueville. From the founding to the 1870s, in Western and American political thought. Here, American conservatism was a nuance of traditional the word concept is used to denote a generalized, conservatism with a bit of modern conservatism, trans-national and trans-historical idea that we especially in transitional conservatism around the call ‘founding.’ Conceptions of founding are also 1870s to the 1930s. The transitional conservatism ideals. As an ideal, a conception of founding is was greatly influenced by the Industrial Revolution given to determine value-content through a set of and the Gilded era (1870s-1901s). These eras idealization. For instance, in classical conceptions, characterized a new economic order that old these idealizations consist of specific definitions of conservatives became factory owners and old will and authority: “founding as the act of God and liberals became factory workers. Furthermore a mythic leader. These figures are the will behind conservatives and liberals changed their minds the act of creation, grounded in an authority outside about government involvement in the economy. the community that they create” (Arendt, 1963:23). The following years after the conservative political In contrast to the classical ideal of founding, philosophy: New Conservatives (1960s), New the modern ideal of founding posits the founding Right (1970s), and Neo-conservatism (1960s, as a democratic act. The movement of American 1980s, 2002s), conservative activists started what is

328 Didik Murwantono - American Conservative Movement of the Tea Party in 2009 now commonly known as the cities throughout the country drawing thousands. (2009s) reacting against the Democratic presidency The Tea Party movement, an acronym of Obama since 2009. In the American presidential for “Taxed Enough Already,” is a “ election of 2012, the existence of the Tea Party movement primarily consisting of individuals split conservative intellectuals and splintered the identifying themselves as tax and spend Republican Party. conservatives regardless of their party affiliation,” as stated by Klein and Barret (2009). The Tea Party THE TEA PARTY calls for , debt reduction, no In December 1773, some fifty to sixty men of higher taxes, and no new spending. It reveres the the town of Boston, supported by virtually the entire Constitution, interpreting it as limiting the powers community and by many people from surrounding of the federal government, and argues that Congress towns, took an action that in the space of about has far exceeded its rightful boundaries. The three hours changed the course of American history reasons for protesting have gone beyond just the John J. Coleman et al (2012:69) state “It was a stimulus package. For instance, the tea partiers also group of colonists, calling themselves the Sons of argue against Obama’s health care package and big , gathered to protest the Tea Act and other government in general (Formisano 2012: 1). moves by the British government.” Americans were The Tea Party movement is many different protesting their lack of representation in Parliament things to many different people. The name and challenged not only Britain’s levying of itself is not a traditional political party. It is also taxes but also Parliament’s broader assertions of not a prototypical political protest movement. sovereignty. They raided trade ships in the Boston The movement does not have a clear leader, no Harbor, throwing imported tea overboard. This central headquarters, or even a unifying political incident has taken on the status of an iconic event platform. Put simply, the Tea Party movement is in American history; an example of when patriots a decentralized community of citizens upset with banded together to battle against an oppressive the status quo. From the beginning, the Tea Party government. The cycle of action and reaction sparked no end of debates. Traditional print media, that followed the “” led to the talk radio, network, cable television, and copious Declaration of Independence and the creation of the blogs opined endlessly about the Tea Party. United States. In the aftermath of a potentially demoralizing Approximately 236 years later, it was political 2008 electoral defeat, when the Republican Party tea time yet again. The Tea Party movement that seemed widely discredited, the emergence of the emerged in 2009 is the latest in a long line of Tea Party provided conservative activists with a protests that use Boston Tea Party imagery to link new identity funded by Republican business elites back to this iconic event. On February 19, 2009, (e.g. the super-opulent, arch-reactionary capitalists after much conservative frustration with Obama’s and polluters Charles and , and Richard stimulus package, CNBC’s attacked Armey as director of reactionary Obama’s plan as “promoting bad behavior” He Freedom Works), and reinforced by a network of jested that he was trying to plan a “Chicago Tea conservative media sources like (Street Party” in protest (O’hara 2010; Street and Dimaggio and Dimaggio 2011:viii) . The emergence of the 2011; Patten 2012; Reynolds 2009; Whittell 2012). Tea Party Movement after the election of President Thus, the New Tea Party Movement was born. The is the result of increasing anxieties, video of Santelli went viral on YouTube receiving fears, and anger in a predominantly White middle more than a million downloads within a week of class and working class constituency. Starting as the original broadcast (Pethokoukis 2009). Soon a project of elite conservative strategists, the Tea thereafter started being held in Party movement quickly developed an actual mass

329 Humaniora, Vol. 25, No. 3 Oktober 2013: 324-333 base, and turned into the type of right-wing populist movement that has involved millions of Americans movement seen previously throughout US history. in the political process like never before and has Riding a wave of conservative dissent permanently changed the political landscape of our following 2009’s American Recovery and time”. It is genuinely a grassroots movement— Reinvestment Act and Patient Protection and something quite on the left or right” , the Tea Party exploded onto (2010:xxvi). the political scene and helped the Republicans In the American Presidential Election of 2008 to score 680 legislative seats (Coughlin 2011:3). Barrack Obama ran, with considerable rhetorical By the end of 2010, particularly in the midterm force, on a promise of hope and change in the elections of that year, the Tea Party made a midst of an economic crisis, and on his ability to powerful impact on both the Democratic and bring consensus to a divided political class. But for Republican parties. Tea Party voters helped create many, things have changed for the worse, and the the new Republican majority in the House of country is even more polarized than he started. So Representatives and during 2011 quickly exerted the substantial benefits of his presidency are not influence on the Republican legislative agenda. The fully apparent—particularly to those most likely Tea Party, acting largely as a pressure group, has to have voted for him. Meanwhile, the symbolic profoundly shaped the content of national political significance of his candidacy is largely spent. debate and has had a transforming impact on the Younge (2012:6) wrote “Obama can only be elected Republican Party (Formisano 2012:6). the first black president once. His presence remains a source of great pride to many, particularly African OBAMA AND THE TEA PARTY Americans and the young.” In the late winter and early spring of 2009, just More recently, Obama’s re-election and the months after Obama’s inauguration, consumers of continued split in Congress confirmed a reality that American news and politics were presented with a has been forming for a generation: no matter how purportedly great and novel protest phenomenon—a passionately the true believers in each party make supposedly new “third force,” in the words of the their case, no matter what new technologies arrive Wall Street Journal, in the nation’s political life— to amplify their voices, no matter how high the “the Tea Party”. Wrapped in the potent historical alps of campaign cash lavished on data mining, symbolism of the American Revolution, this swiftly hyper-targeted ads and voter mobilization become, emerging movement spoke the traditional national Americans refuse to give a governing mandate to language of “freedom” and “liberty” against the one side or the other. True, Republicans got control supposedly “left”, “big government,” and even the of the government in the early years of George “socialist” and “Marxist” agenda of the president W. Bush’s presidency, and the Democrats had and his fellow “radical” Democrats. They were in their turn when Obama swept into office. Some the streets because of the “out-of-control spending” big things got done, first under the Republicans and statist agenda of Obama. (Street and Dimaggio (tax cuts, a Medicare expansion, wars in Iraq 2011: 1-2) and Afghanistan) and then under the Democrats The Tea Party was in large part a reaction. (restructuring of the health care and automotive In its own public relations and according to its industries, new banking regulations, a jump-start for own supporters, the Tea Party represents a great green energy) (Drehle 2012:50). independent, nonpartisan, grassroots, insurgent, As the losers, the Republicans now assign and anti-establishment uprising of the people blame. Start with the blame game and the easiest against concentrated power and wealth (Street gambit of all, which is to blame the candidate. No and Dimaggio 2011: 5). In O’hara’s account in time was wasted in skewering Romney. Without his book, “the Tea Party is a powerful grassroots doubt, the former Massachusetts governor made

330 Didik Murwantono - American Conservative Movement of the Tea Party in 2009 an easy target. of the Tea Party The big difference in the 2012 election was Patriots groused that “What we got was a weak not that a growing Latino voting base presented moderate candidate, handpicked by the Beltway a problem for Republicans; rather it was that elites and country-club establishment wing of Republicans failed to properly articulate to that base the Republican Party, the presidential loss is the conservative solutions and way of life that solve unequivocally on them” (Ibid). many of the issues they’re experiencing. Now that A question for Republicans is whether they the election is over and the Republican Party has will go deeper into the blame game than simply been condemned as a flop, the prevailing wisdom scapegoating their nominee. The party coaxed and seems to be, even among some high ranking prodded its candidate into damaging positions on Republicans in Congress, that conservatives are immigration, abortion, gay rights, and more. It now supposed to simply prostrate themselves and was not enough for Romney to stand on a broadly submit to the will of the winning party. appealing platform of fiscal responsibility and free In fact, the American presidential election of enterprise. He was expected to somehow compete 2012 is like a marketing, mainly to sell a person for Latino votes while denying undocumented rather than a product or service. During the recent immigrants a path to citizenship, even members of presidential election, the Democrats effectively used military. He was supposed to vie for women’s votes the same marketing techniques that businesses use while down-ballot Republicans parsed the meaning -- market segmentation, targeted messaging, and of rape. The Tea Party movement can be credited emotion-based selling. The Republicans should with electrifying a body that flat lined after 2008, consider adopting a similar model to win future but what rose from the slab this year was a sort of elections. Businesses understand that no matter Frankenstein’s monster, a toxic patchwork of once how good their product or service, some people buried ideas (Ibid). will never buy. For this reason they target their A party interested in winning future marketing and advertising toward people who presidential elections would ask itself why would likely be persuaded by their messages to buy candidates who might have been more adept their product or service. In addition, the messages campaigners than Romney chose to stay on the need to create visual images that appeal to the sidelines that year. There was a message for the emotions. The same is true in politics (Krajacic right wing in that surge. As strategist 2012). put it on Fox News, “If we are going to win in The Democrats followed this strategy and the future, Republicans need to do better among won. The Democrats divided potential “buyers” women, particularly single women” (51). But with into demographic groups -- African-American, no President Romney to remind them of it, the Hispanic, women, young people -- and tailored their lesson is likely to be ignored. Should Republicans advertising messages to each of these groups. The point fingers at Romney without also pointing a few Democrats ignored some market segments, such at the mirror, they will likely emerge from defeat as white males. They knew a given percentage of convinced that the path to victory lies even further them would vote for Obama, that their marketing to the right. They will go deeper into the quagmire efforts would not change this number substantially, of the culture wars. They will double down on anti- and that it would be enough as long as their targeted immigrant rhetoric that helped turn California from marketing strategies are successful. The Democrats the land of Reagan into an automatic 55 electoral then developed a single message for each group, votes for the Democrats. The failure to beat a incorporated the theme into an advertisement, and hobbled incumbent should remind the GOP that ran the ad in an area with a high concentration politics is a game of addition, not exclusion (Ibid). of people from that particular voting bloc. Each

331 Humaniora, Vol. 25, No. 3 Oktober 2013: 324-333 message addressed the single issue that many and the Republican party. In an effort to break the members in that group care about deeply -- amnesty duopoly that has existed over several decades, for Hispanics, marriage for gays, abortion for many third parties have come into existence. Some women, union support and company bailouts for have just had a major impact locally or statewide, autoworkers. These issues are based on emotion but not nationally. Their most important political and group-interest, not the general welfare of the function is to affect policy making and potentially country. This research also finds that the existence transform the two-party system. The American of the Tea Party split conservative intellectuals and conservatism movement like the Tea Party has splintered the Republican Party. historically emerged and died out. Ballot access restrictions, media coverage, and financing are CONCLUSION many obstacles that prevent the party from being successful. It is known that American conservative There are some significant American movements have not been successful; however phenomena, which have greatly had great they have affected policy changes like in the influences on the development of social and presidential election as Obama was re-elected as the political thoughts. The goals of studying American 45th President of The United States of America. conservative movement include understanding the origins and evolution of today’s dominant values and beliefs, what these mean. The Tea REFERENCES Party movement has given a concept of founding Arendt, Hannah. (1963). On Revolution. New York: as mythology figures influenced by some variables Viking Press. –government’s roles, economic crises, top-down Baradat, Leon P. (1979). Political Ideologies: Their policies, and political parties’ strategies– American Origins and Impact. New Jersey: Prentice- conservative movement moreover, has often been Hall, Inc. reactive, responding to perceived political and -----, (1984). Political Ideologies: Their Origins and intellectual challenges. If the challenges and threats Impact. 2nd ed. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. change, the nature of the conservative movement Bernal, Angelica Maria. (2008). The Concept of will respond. Founding. ProQuest Dissertation and Thesis In general terms, the meaning of conservatism A&I. gp.n/a. UMI Number: 3317259. USA. is straightforward. It refers to the reality of a flawed Cox, Robert W. (1981). “Sosial Forces, States and humanity and a hierarchy in which human abilities World Orders: Beyond International Relations are unequally distributed. It teaches that political Theory”. Millennium, Vol. X, No. 2. positions should be prudently considered in the context of historical precedent. It opposes radical Coleman et al. (2012). “The Colonists Rebelled ideologies based solely on perfectionist ideals Against Taxes Imposed Unilaterally by and it is skeptical of rationalist politics of abstract the British Government.” Understanding theoretical principles that produces fanaticism. In American Politics and Governments. USA: a long debate of American conservatism, in short, Pearson. America can be called a fundamentally liberal Coughlin, Alex T. (2011). The Challeges of country. Americans will wait and see the changes : An Analysis of Tea Party Structuring in tradition as checks and balances are reflected in Narratives. Thesis. USA: State American government. University. Americans have a high level of discontent and Drehle, David Von. (2012). A Subtle Message anger toward government and social institutions. About Things to Come May. ”For Obama, This anger is directed at the Democratic party Survival is the New Winning.” TIME. Nov. 19.

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