DOCSLIB.ORG

`` Une Voix Et Un Écho '': Analyse Des Interactions Entre Le Tea Party Et Le

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
`` Une Voix Et Un Écho '': Analyse Des Interactions Entre Le Tea Party Et Le “ Une voix et un écho ” : Analyse des interactions entre le Tea Party et le système politique américain (2009-2013) Eric Rouby To cite this version: Eric Rouby. “ Une voix et un écho ” : Analyse des interactions entre le Tea Party et le système politique américain (2009-2013). Science politique. Université de Bordeaux, 2018. Français. NNT : 2018BORD0043. tel-01896475 HAL Id: tel-01896475 https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01896475 Submitted on 16 Oct 2018 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. THÈSE PRÉSENTÉE POUR OBTENIR LE GRADE DE DOCTEUR DE L’UNIVERSITÉ DE BORDEAUX ÉCOLE DOCTORALE DE DROIT (E.D. 41) SPÉCIALITÉ SCIENCE POLITIQUE Par Eric ROUBY « Une voix et un écho » Analyse des interactions entre le Tea Party et le système politique américain (2009-2013) Sous la direction de : Patrick TROUDE-CHASTENET Soutenue le 27 mars 2018 Membres du jury : M. BATTISTELLA Dario, Professeur à Science Po Bordeaux, examinateur M. GAGNON Frédérick, Professeur à l’Université du Québec à Montréal, rapporteur M. SINTOMER Yves, Professeur à l’Université de Paris 8 , rapporteur M. TROUDE-CHASTENET Patrick, Professeur à l’Université de Bordeaux , directeur de thèse M. VERGNIOLLE DE CHANTAL François, Professeur à l’Université Paris Diderot, président du jury 1 2 « Une voix et un écho » : Analyse des interactions entre le Tea Party et le système politique américain (2009-2013) Résumé : Début 2009, alors que les Etats-Unis étaient au cœur de la crise économique la plus importante depuis plus de soixante-quinze ans, Barack Obama prenait place à la Maison-Blanche et mettait en place ses premières mesures sous le mot d’ordre « Hope and Change ». L’opposition à son action s’est alors rapidement cristallisée autour du mouvement Tea Party . Le premier objectif de ce travail de thèse consiste à expliquer le succès remporté par ce mouvement, en soulignant le rôle de quatre facteurs issue d e la « structure des opportunités politiques » : l’ouverture du système partisan aux challengers, la stabilité des alignements politiques, l’existence de forces relais et, enfin, la structure du conflit. Ces éléments constitutifs nous donnent aussi les clés nécessaires pour comprendre comment et sous quelle forme s’est construite l’idéologie du mouvement. Dans un second temps, il sera question d’analyser les effets du mouvement Tea Party sur son environnement politique. Nous chercherons à comprendre dans quelle mesure et selon quels mécanismes ce mouvement est parvenu à influencer le système politique américain dans un contexte marqué, depuis les années soixante-dix, par une polarisation de la politique américaine. Pour cela, nous aurons recours à l’étude co mparée des discours produits par le Tea Party , le Parti républicain et le Parti démocrate. Mots-clés : Tea Party ; mouvement social ; conservatisme ; idéologie ; parti politique ; polarisation politique “A voice & an echo”: Analysis of the interactions between the Tea Party and the American political system (2009-2013) Abstract : In 2009, while the United-States were suffering from the worst economic crisis in more than sixty-five years, Barack Obama entered the White House and began implementing the first measures of his “Hope and change” agenda. Opposition to his actions quickly crystallized around the Tea Party movement. This PhD thesis aims firstly to explain the sudden success of the Tea Party by pointing the role of four factors linked to the “political opportunity structure”: access to the party system and policy decisions, the political alignments stability, the alliance structure, and finally the conflict structure. Those four elements can also help us unde rstand the way the movement’s ideology was shaped. A second part is devoted to analyzing the effects of the Tea Party on its political environment. We intend to show to what extend and in which ways the Tea Party was able to influence the American political system, in a context marked, since the seventies, by a growing political polarization. To do so, we proceed by resorting to the comparative study of the Tea Party, the Republican Party, and the Democratic Party discourses. Keywords : Tea Party; social movement; conservatism; ideology; political party; political polarization Unité de Recherche Institut de Recherches Montesquieu (IRM-CMRP) – EA 7434 IRM PAC Pessac, 16 avenue Léon Duguit CS 50057, 33608 Pessac cedex 3 4 À la mémoire de ma mère. 5 6 Avant-propos La thèse est un exercice on ne peut plus solitaire. Comme tout travail scientifique, elle demande un effort de déconstruction et de reconstruction de la réalité. Elle exige surtout une confrontation et une remise en question continues des croyances et des perceptions personnelles. Je souhaiterais, lors des quelques lignes qui suivent, prendre le temps de remercier les personnes qui m’ont permis de mener à bien ce travail. Je voudrais, en premier lieu, remercier mon directeur de thèse M. Patrick Troude-Chastenet pour qui le suivi de ma progression – entre doutes et atermoiements – n’a pas dû être de tout repos. Sa disponibilité, son exigence ainsi que ses conseils m’ont fourni autant de balises nécessaires à ma navigation. Je tiens à exprimer ma reconnaissance au Centre Montesquieu de Recherches Politiques et son directeur, M. Daniel Bourmaud, pour les conditions de travail qu’il offre. Le sentiment de faire partie d’un « petit village gaulois » au sein de l’Université de Borde aux, par ses objectifs et ses axes de recherche m’ont permis de mener et de parachever mes recherches comme je l’entendais. A Carole Bergerot, j’aimerai s dire à quel point son soutien et sa bonne humeur ont éclairé mes journées passées dans la salle des doctorants. Enfin, je souhaiterais exprimer ma plus grande gratitude à M. Philippe Claret pour son immuable bienveillance. Parmi les personnes qui ont fait de ce périple un voyage exceptionnellement enrichissant, je pense bien entendu aux autres doctorants du CMRP. Tant « l’ancienne génération », ma génération et celle qui me succède m’ont beaucoup apporté. Je remercie mes « voisins de table » Aurélien, Clémence, Roman ; un grand merci à Matthieu et Mathilde pour avoir participé à la relecture de mon travail ; enfin, particulièrement à Adrien pour m’avoir aidé et supporté. A mon père et mon frère qui ont été les derniers à être au courant de l’avancement de ma thèse mais les premiers à me soutenir, je souhaite leur exprimer toute mon affection. A Magalie et Dami en à qui j’avais soutenu à mon entrée à l’université que je ne comptai s pas aller plus loin que la Licence, et qui m’ont fait l’honneur de devenir le parrain de leur magnifique fille, je leur témoigne toute mon amitié. 7 Une pensée, enfin, à toutes et tous les instituteur(e)s, enseignant(e)s et professeur(e)s – dont certains sont déjà cités plus haut – qui ont réussi à me transmettre leur passion et à me donner le goût de la connaissance. 8 Sommaire Introduction générale Partie I – Du mécontentement au mouvement : le rôle de l’environnement politique et la co-construction du mouvement social Chapitre 1. Emergence du Tea Party et perceptions du contexte I. Développement du concept de structure des opportunités politiques II. Etude de la structure des opportunités politiques Chapitre 2. Identification et définition de l’idéologie du Tea Party I. Des idéologies primaires aux idéologies des mouvements sociaux II. Arbre idéologique du mouvement Tea Party Partie II – L’influence du Tea Party sur l’environnement politique américain Chapitre 3. Le Tea Party et les mutations du Parti républicain I. 2009-2010 : Réorientation idéologique et stratégique du Parti républicain II. 2010-2012 : Une restructuration du Parti républicain ? III. 2012-2013 : Le Tea Party à la barre du navire républicain Chapitre 4. Le Tea Party et la polarisation de la politique américaine I. I. Les hypothèses préexistantes explicatives de la polarisation du système politique II. La polarisation politique asymétrique aux Etats-Unis Conclusion générale 9 10 Index des tableaux et schémas Schéma 1. Modèle linéaire d’Eisinger Schéma 2. Modèle curviligne d’Eisinger Schéma 3. Représentation de la théorie du processus politique Schéma 4. Modèle d’ouverture favorable Schéma 5. Répartition des opportunités politiques Schéma 6. Distribution de l’électorat dans un système politique Schéma 7. Distribution des Démocrates et des Républicains Schéma 8. Position de Bobby Jindal sur un tableau leadership/idéologie Tableau 1. Différence entre idéologie « primaires » et « scavengers » Tableau 2. Soutien pour le Parti républicain selon les catégories sociales Tableau 3. La production législative aux Etats-Unis entre 2009 et 2013 11 12 « Une voix et un écho » : Analyse des interactions entre le Tea Party et le système politique américain (2009-2013) 13 14 Introduction générale « Les hommes font leur propre histoire, mais ils ne la font pas arbitrairement, dans les conditions choisies par eux, mais dans des conditions directement données et héritées du passé. La tradition de toutes les générations mortes pèse d’un poids très lourd sur le cerveau des vivants. Et même quand ils semblent occupés à se transformer, eux et les choses, à créer quelque chose de tout à fait nouveau, c’est précisém ent à ces époques de crise révolutionnaire qu’ils évoquent craintivement les esprits du passé, qu’ils leur empruntent leurs noms, leurs mots d’ordre, leurs costumes, pour apparaître sur la nouvelle scène de l’histoire sous ce déguisement respectable et avec ce langage emprunté.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Tea Party in North Carolina: Threat to a New Birth of Freedom
    THE TEA PARTY IN NORTH CAROLINA: THREAT TO A NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM By Devin Burghart and Leonard Zeskind Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights The Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights is responsible for the content and analysis of this report. Additional materials, including updates and exclusive web content can be found at irehr.org. Copyright © 2014 Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights. All Rights Reserved. No Part of this report may be reproduced without the permission of the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights except for sections quoted with proper attribution for purposes of reviews and public education. The Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights (IREHR) is a national organization with an international outlook examining racist, anti-Semitic, white nationalist, and far-right social movements, analyzing their intersection with civil society and social policy, educating the public, and assisting in the protection and extension of human rights through organization and informed mobilization. INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH & EDUCATION ON HUMAN RIGHTS P.O. Box 411552 Kansas City, MO 64141 voice: (816) 474-4748 email: [email protected] website: www.irehr.org Contents Preface by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II 1 Foreword: Exposing the Hard Right's Bag of Tricks Against Poor and Working 2 White People by Alan McSurely Introduction 4 Inside the Tea Party in North Carolina 7 Tea Party Membership in North Carolina 10 North Carolina Tea Party Chapters 18 Beyond Policy: North Carolina Tea Party’s
    [Show full text]
  • Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party Battle Over Energy Efficiency
    Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party Battle over Energy Efficiency Jeff Erickson, Navigant Consulting ABSTRACT Those involved in delivering or evaluating energy efficiency programs have had a reasonably comfortable relationship with environmental advocates over the years. In fact heightened environmental concerns helped spur the latest round of enthusiasm for energy efficiency among regulators and legislators. What about some of the other groups that are battling for the public’s attention lately – how might their efforts affect energy efficiency? If the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement grows how will it affect publicly-funded energy efficiency? Will utility-led energy efficiency programs be frowned upon by the OWS crowd? Will they want to see more states taking energy efficiency programs away from utilities and creating new institutions to run them (as, for example, is done in Wisconsin)? On the other side of the spectrum, will the Tea Party target energy efficiency regulations as evidence that the government has overstepped its constitutional purview? Will their push for deregulation lead to a pull back from regulations authorizing public-benefits charges to fund energy efficiency programs? This paper provides a framework for thinking about these questions and considering the potential ramifications if either of these movements grows in influence and targets energy efficiency. The paper will break the energy efficiency realm down into several parts representing key organizational or regulatory issues and consider the positions that the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street members either have already expressed or are likely to express based on their foundational principles. Introduction Some individuals, families, businesses, and public sector entities take actions on their own accord, with their own money, to improve their energy efficiency.
    [Show full text]
  • THE TAX COMPLIANCE IMPLICATIONS of the TEA PARTY MOVEMENT Richard Lavoie*
    The University of Akron IdeaExchange@UAkron Akron Law Publications The chooS l of Law October 2011 Patriotism and Taxation: The aT x Compliance Implications of the Tea Party Movement Richard L. Lavoie University of Akron Law School, [email protected] Please take a moment to share how this work helps you through this survey. Your feedback will be important as we plan further development of our repository. Follow this and additional works at: http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/ua_law_publications Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Lavoie, Richard L., "Patriotism and Taxation: The aT x Compliance Implications of the Tea Party Movement" (2011). Akron Law Publications. 131. http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/ua_law_publications/131 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The chooS l of Law at IdeaExchange@UAkron, the institutional repository of The nivU ersity of Akron in Akron, Ohio, USA. It has been accepted for inclusion in Akron Law Publications by an authorized administrator of IdeaExchange@UAkron. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. PATRIOTISM AND TAXATION: THE TAX COMPLIANCE IMPLICATIONS OF THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT Richard Lavoie* Given the rise of the tea party movement, which draws strength from the historical linkage between patriotism and tax protests in the United States, the role of patriotism as a general tax compliance factor is examined in light of the extant empirical evidence. The existing research suggests that patriotism may be a weaker tax compliance factor in the United States than it is elsewhere. In light of this possibility, the tea party movement has the potential to weaken this compliance factor even more.
    [Show full text]
  • Conservative Movement
    Conservative Movement How did the conservative movement, routed in Barry Goldwater's catastrophic defeat to Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 presidential campaign, return to elect its champion Ronald Reagan just 16 years later? What at first looks like the political comeback of the century becomes, on closer examination, the product of a particular political moment that united an unstable coalition. In the liberal press, conservatives are often portrayed as a monolithic Right Wing. Close up, conservatives are as varied as their counterparts on the Left. Indeed, the circumstances of the late 1980s -- the demise of the Soviet Union, Reagan's legacy, the George H. W. Bush administration -- frayed the coalition of traditional conservatives, libertarian advocates of laissez-faire economics, and Cold War anti- communists first knitted together in the 1950s by William F. Buckley Jr. and the staff of the National Review. The Reagan coalition added to the conservative mix two rather incongruous groups: the religious right, primarily provincial white Protestant fundamentalists and evangelicals from the Sunbelt (defecting from the Democrats since the George Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign); and the neoconservatives, centered in New York and led predominantly by cosmopolitan, secular Jewish intellectuals. Goldwater's campaign in 1964 brought conservatives together for their first national electoral effort since Taft lost the Republican nomination to Eisenhower in 1952. Conservatives shared a distaste for Eisenhower's "modern Republicanism" that largely accepted the welfare state developed by Roosevelt's New Deal and Truman's Fair Deal. Undeterred by Goldwater's defeat, conservative activists regrouped and began developing institutions for the long haul.
    [Show full text]
  • The Tea Party and American Populism Today: Between Protest, Patriotism and Paranoia
    The American State – symposium Michael Minkenberg The Tea Party and American Populism Today: Between Protest, Patriotism and Paranoia Abstract This article takes a closer look at the Tea Party by adding a transatlantic perspective. Its aim is to show that the Tea Party is a genuine right-wing movement with strong affinities to the Republican Party which revives par- ticular American traditions of conservatism and the radical right. Its support base is not ‘the mainstream’ but a particular cross section of the white middle classes. In this, it is the American mirror image of many European parties and movements of the populist radical right which share the Tea Party’s anti-establishment message, its ultra-patriotism and ethnocentrism. It also shares some of its characteristics with the Christian Right with which it competes and cooperates when aiming at influencing the Republican Party and Washington while marking the merger of the Christian Right with Southern conservatism. Key words: Populism, American conservatism, radical right, Christian Right, Republican Party 1. Introduction “Keep your government hands off my Medicare!” (at a town hall meeting in South Carolina, quoted in Zernike 2011a, p. 135) After more than one and a half years of its existence and unmistakable presence in American politics, and of its accompanying scrutiny, the Tea Party movement remains a deeply ambivalent phenomenon. Ambivalent in terms of its independence as a movement or and its relationship to the Republican party, conservative business elites, or right-wing media; ambivalent in terms of its message, the kind of change it advocates in explicit de- marcation from the change its adherents attribute to President Obama; ambivalent about its social base as a true grass-roots or an elite-driven network of organizations and activ- ists, a middle class or cross-class movement (see Rahe 2011; Rasmussen/Schoen 2010; Williamson et al.
    [Show full text]
  • The Tea Party Movement and Popular Constitutionalism
    Copyright 2011 by Northwestern University School of Law Vol. 105 Northwestern University Law Review Colloquy THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT AND POPULAR CONSTITUTIONALISM Ilya Somin* INTRODUCTION The rise of the Tea Party movement followed a period during which many academic students of constitutional law focused on ―popular constitu- tionalism‖: the involvement of public opinion and popular movements in influencing constitutional interpretation.1 Many of these scholars argue that popular constitutional movements have a beneficial impact on constitution- al law,2 and some even contend that popular constitutionalism should sup- plant judicial review entirely.3 At the very least, the last generation of constitutional scholarship has established that public opinion influences and significantly constrains judicial interpretation of the Constitution.4 Most of the previous scholarship on popular constitutionalism focuses on movements identified with the political left, such as the civil rights *Associate Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law. For helpful suggestions and comments, I would like to thank Jonathan Adler, Jared Goldstein, participants in the 2011 AALS panel on the Tea Party and the Constitution, and the editors of the Northwestern University Law Review Col- loquy. I would also like to thank Eva Choi and Eric Facer for helpful research assistance. 1 See, e.g., LARRY D. KRAMER, THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES: POPULAR CONSTITUTIONALISM AND JUDICIAL REVIEW (2004); MARK TUSHNET, TAKING THE CONSTITUTION AWAY FROM THE COURTS (1999); JEREMY WALDRON, LAW AND DISAGREEMENT (1999); Matthew D. Adler, Popular Constitutio- nalism and the Rule of Recognition: Whose Practices Ground U.S. Law?, 100 NW. U. L. REV. 719 (2006) (link); Larry Alexander & Lawrence B.
    [Show full text]
  • “Fractures, Alliances, and Mobilizations: Emerging Analyses of the Tea Party Movement”
    Tea Party Conference Proceedings 1 “Fractures, Alliances, and Mobilizations: Emerging Analyses of the Tea Party Movement” A Conference Sponsored by the Center for the Comparative Study of Right-Wing Movements Friday, October 22, 2010 Alumni House, University of California, Berkeley Conference Proceedings Prepared by Rebecca Alexander Welcome and Opening Remarks Lawrence Rosenthal opens the conference by describing the history of the Center for the Comparative Study of Right Wing Movements (CCSRWM) and the impetus behind a conference to study the Tea Party movement. The CCSRWM opened its doors in March of 2009. When work on the center first began, Rosenthal says, many people scoffed at the idea because, with Obama moving in and Bush and the Republicans moving out, they thought concerns about right- wing movements were over. When the Center opened, a couple of months into the Obama presidency, however, nobody was scoffing anymore. The right was louder than ever, becoming the political phenomenon of the year, coalescing into something we struggle today to understand. Rosenthal explains that The Tea Party movement is an extraordinary expression of an American Right that not only did not go away after Obama’s resounding electoral victory, but regrouped and moved further to the right, embracing ideas that American conservatives had rejected years ago and mobilizing a Perot-sized chunk of the electorate. Rosenthal says he is struck by similarities between 1993 and 2008, because in both cases the presidency of an elected Democrat was deemed illegitimate by much of the right. In the first case, right-wing objection to Bill Clinton resulted in impeachment; a phenomenon that Rosenthal suggests may repeat itself in the age of “Birthers” if Republicans win majorities in the House and Senate.
    [Show full text]
  • Congressional Record United States Th of America PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES of the 112 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION
    E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 112 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION Vol. 158 WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 2012 No. 47 House of Representatives The House met at 10 a.m. and was are encouraged to reflect on just how with dirty water compounds the prob- called to order by the Speaker pro tem- fundamental freshwater is to our lems in terms of diarrheal diseases that pore (Mrs. ELLMERS). health, our children’s well-being, and result from that dirty water. f how much we take for granted. We’ve Madam Speaker, since we’ve passed never had to try to work that hard to the Water for the World legislation 7 DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO find drinking water. We don’t have to years ago, where Chairman of the For- TEMPORE choose between drinking dirty water eign Relations Committee Henry Hyde, The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- and going thirsty. For many of us, Senator REID, and Senator Frist were fore the House the following commu- freshwater is so safe, abundant, it’s my partners, we’ve increased our lead- nication from the Speaker: hard to even imagine life without it. ership globally. We owe a debt of grati- WASHINGTON, DC, But on this World Water Day, we tude to Secretary Clinton, who has March 21, 2012. should reflect that every 20 seconds a made water a cornerstone of her work I hereby appoint the Honorable RENEE L. child dies needlessly from waterborne while at the helm of the State Depart- ELLMERS to act as Speaker pro tempore on disease.
    [Show full text]
  • TEA Party Exposed by ANONYMOUS Political Party
    ANONYMOUS Political Party would like to take the pleasure to introduce The TEA Party /// Tobacco Everywhere Always this DOX will serve as a wake-up call to some people in the Tea Party itself … who will find it a disturbing to know the “grassroots” movement they are so emotionally attached to, is in fact a pawn created by billionaires and large corporations with little interest in fighting for the rights of the common person, but instead using the common person to fight for their own unfettered profits. The “TEA Party” drives a wedge of division in America | It desires patriots, militias, constitutionalists, and so many more groups and individuals to ignite a revolution | to destroy the very fabric of the threads which were designed to kept this republic united | WE, will not tolerate the ideologies of this alleged political party anymore, nor, should any other individual residing in this nation. We will NOT ‘Hail Hydra”! United as One | Divided by Zero ANONYMOUS Political Party | United States of America www.anonymouspoliticalparty.org Study Confirms Tea Party Was Created by Big Tobacco and Billionaires Clearing the PR Pollution That Clouds Climate Science Select Language ▼ FOLLOW US! Mon, 2013-02-11 00:44 BRENDAN DEMELLE SUBSCRIBE TO OUR E- Study Confirms Tea Party Was Created by Big NEWSLETTER Get our Top 5 stories in your inbox Tobacco and Billionaires weekly. A new academic study confirms that front 12k groups with longstanding ties to the tobacco industry and the billionaire Koch Like DESMOG TIP JAR brothers planned the formation of the Tea Help us clear the PR pollution that Party movement more than a decade clouds climate science.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 a Kingdom Divided: New Media, the Fragmentation of Evangelical
    A Kingdom Divided: New Media, the Fragmentation of Evangelical Cultural Values, and U.S. Politics Christopher W. Boerl A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Politics and International Relations) Royal Holloway College, University of London 2011 Supervisor: Professor Andrew Chadwick 1 I declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Christopher W. Boerl September 10, 2011 2 ABSTRACT OF THESIS A Kingdom Divided: New Media, the Fragmentation of Evangelical Cultural Values, and U.S. Politics Religious movements are a powerful force in politics, but there is no research that analyzes the relationship between new communication technologies and Christian political mobilization in the United States. In addressing this deficit, this thesis has three interrelated aims. First, beginning from an analysis of social capital, civic engagement and mobilization, it provides a historical overview of the U.S. evangelical community and its rise as a dominant cultural and political force. It argues that changing social norms provided the conditions for a strong reactionary religious movement to take root, while the social effects of broadcast media helped to concentrate evangelical energies on issues such as abortion, homosexuality, and school prayer. Second, this thesis develops an understanding of the impact of the Internet upon evangelical organizations based on original research and fieldwork. It demonstrates that in contrast to the effects of broadcast media, which served largely to unify evangelical cultural attitudes, the Internet is instead a source of significant theological fragmentation and political pluralization. By serving as a conduit through which dissident religious elements are better able to connect, organize, and mobilize, the Internet is revealed to be a powerful tool for movements such as ―creation care‖ and the ―emerging church,‖ which in years past have been unable to gather significant cultural strength due to the limitations of prevailing communication infrastructures.
    [Show full text]
  • The Last White Election?
    mike davis THE LAST WHITE ELECTION? ast september, while Bill Clinton was delighting the 2012 Democratic Convention in Charlotte with his folksy jibe at Mitt Romney for wanting to ‘double up on the trickle down’, a fanatical adherent of Ludwig von Mises, wearing a villainous Lblack cowboy hat and accompanied by a gun-toting bodyguard, captured the national headquarters of the Tea Party movement in Washington, dc. The Jack Palance double in the Stetson was Dick Armey. As House Majority Leader in 1997 he had participated in a botched plot, instigated by Republican Whip Tom DeLay and an obscure Ohio Congressman named John Boehner, to topple House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Now Armey was attempting to wrest total control of FreedomWorks, the organization most responsible for repackaging rank-and-file Republican rage as the ‘Tea Party rebellion’ as well as training and coordinating its activists.1 Tea Party Patriots—a national network with several hundred affiliates—is one of its direct offshoots. As FreedomWorks’ chairperson, Armey symbolized an ideological continuity between the Republican con- gressional landslides of 1994 and 2010, the old ‘Contract with America’ and the new ‘Contract from America’. No one was better credentialed to inflict mortal damage on the myth of conservative solidarity. Only in December did the lurid details of the coup leak to the press. According to the Washington Post, ‘the gun-wielding assistant escorted FreedomWorks’ top two employees off the premises, while Armey sus- pended several others who broke down in sobs at the news.’2 The chief target was Matt Kibbe, the organization’s president and co-author with Armey of the best-selling Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto.
    [Show full text]
  • Thesis the Tea Party
    THESIS THE TEA PARTY: THE DISCOURSE OF CLASS, RACE, & GENDER/SEXUALITY Submitted by Benjamin Thomas Grant Schrader Department of Ethnic Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado Spring 2011 Master’s Committee: Advisor: Eric Ishiwata Joon Kim Courtenay Daum ABSTRACT THE TEA PARTY: THE DISCOURSE OF CLASS, RACE, & GENDER/SEXUALITY My thesis seeks to examine the Tea Party and its effects on the discourse around the intersections of race, class, and gender. It is my contention that the actions and discourse around the Tea Party Movement creates a cultural pedagogy that promotes structural violence that stems from an ideology of individualism. The promotion of individualism breaks down the foundations of democratic practices. In order to examine this, my investigation will work to: 1) explore the ties between neoliberalism, nationalism, and patriotism; 2) trace the ways in which race plays a role in Tea Party rhetoric and show its ties to racism, and; 3) locate the ways in which the Tea Party movement promotes hyper-masculinity. The final chapter will explore the construction of communal traditions that promote volunteerism and/or community engagement, which in turn could build social capital that could counter the endemic ideology of individualism. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT Special thanks to my thesis advisor, Eric Ishiwata, I couldn’t have done it without you! Thanks also to my committee, Joon Kim and Courtenay Daum. Also, thank you very much to the Ethnic
    [Show full text]