Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2014 Conservative Social Movement Activism: Tea Party Activism and Scalar Politics in Campaigning for Public Office Nicholas Quinton Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND PUBLIC POLICY CONSERVATIVE SOCIAL MOVEMENT ACTIVISM: TEA PARTY ACTIVISM AND SCALAR POLITICS IN CAMPAIGNING FOR PUBLIC OFFICE By NICHOLAS QUINTON A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Geography in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2014 Nicholas Quinton defended this dissertation on April 4, 2014. The members of the supervisory committee were: Joseph Pierce Professor Directing Dissertation Davis Houck University Representative Victor Mesev Committee Member Christopher Uejio Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my advisor for his tireless work in helping me to finish this project. I also owe thanks to my department chair for his unwavering support for my work. Finally, I thank my wife and son for their sacrifices along the way. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ...................................................................................................................................v List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ vi Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... vii 1. INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................................1 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE ....................................................................................................7 The Geographical Aspects of Contentious Politics ...................................................................7 Situating Conservative Contentious Politics ............................................................................10 Tea Party Activism: Conservative Contentious Politics ..............................................13 The Scale of Contentious Politics ............................................................................................15 The Scale(s) of Contentious Politics: Singular and Plural Politics of Scale ................17 3. DEFINITION OF CASE AND METHODS............................................................................20 The Case...................................................................................................................................20 Tea Party Activism, Electoral Politics and Tennessee.................................................20 Methodology: Defining the Objects of Research.....................................................................30 Coding Results .........................................................................................................................36 Campaign Politics and Conservative Orders of Discourse ..........................................36 Neoliberal Order of Discourse .....................................................................................37 Tea Party Order of Discourse ......................................................................................40 4. ANALYSIS OF THE CASE ....................................................................................................44 Contentious Scalar Politics ......................................................................................................44 Tennessee’s Competitive Advantage and the National Threat ....................................44 The Tea Party Factor ....................................................................................................48 A Personal Solution .....................................................................................................50 The Contentious Politics of Campaigning for Public Office ...................................................53 Partnership over Membership ......................................................................................54 5. CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................57 Future Directions .....................................................................................................................59 REFERENCES ..............................................................................................................................62 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .........................................................................................................74 iv LIST OF TABLES 1 Table 3.1. Texturing Summary by Candidate ....................................................................37 2 Table 3.2. Neoliberal Order of Discourse by Candidate ....................................................39 3 Table 3.3. Tea Party Order of Discourse by Candidate .....................................................42 v LIST OF FIGURES 1 Figure 3.1. Tennessee Grand Divisions and Data Collection Sites ...................................28 2 Figure 3.2. Fayette Tea Party “About” Statement .............................................................35 vi ABSTRACT This dissertation is an account of conservative social movement activism. Conservative political projects are characterized by advocacy of market-centric state policies. Conservative social movement activism is one variety of conservative politics distinguishable by the focus on the inclusion of more voices in democratic institutions. As a subject of academic research contentious politics in general and social movements in particular have spawned far-reaching and well-developed dialogue (see edited volumes by Aminzade et al. 2001; Leitner, Peck and Sheppard 2007; McAdam, McCarthy and Zald 1996a). Social scientists from the disciplines of Political Science, Sociology, History, Anthropology and Geography all contribute a wide array of theoretical constructs and methodological applications for a truly multi-disciplinary discussion on the topic. Noticeably underrepresented in this corpus of work is attention to conservative contentious politics. What follows is a case study of Tea Party activism as a variety of conservative contentious politics. This study approaches the role of Tea Party activism during the 2010 election cycle in what is arguable the height of Tea Party influence in United States’ politics. One of the locations where the influence of Tea Party activism was most evident is Tennessee. The question at the center of this project is how did Tea Party activism during the 2010 election cycle shape scalar politics in the Tennessee Republican gubernatorial primary? By applying MacKinnon’s (2011) scalar politics to public speeches made by the Republican candidates for governor in Tennessee, I find that Tea Party activism effectively increased the scale of movement participants’ influence in state politics. I conclude the candidates made normal the role of Tea Party activism in campaigning for public office in Tennessee. The implications of this study point to new fields of inquiry into contentious politics specific to electoral politics. vii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION In their expansive work on the topic, Dynamics of Contention, McAdam, Tarrow and Tilly (2001) characterize contentious politics as a powerful form of political redress for those excluded from positions of authority. Therein, participants construct organizational apparatus, circulatory systems and representational tropes that sustain their efforts in order to make new or unaccepted claims. The resultant collective and nonroutine acts include social movements, revolutions, democratization efforts, ethnic conflict, protests, rebellions, riots and strike waves, (McAdam 2001; Tarrow 2011). Through these acts of contentious politics ordinary people change government policy, alter the business practices of trans-national corporations, shape international trade agreements and otherwise exert their influence against powerful opponents (McAdam, Tarrow and Tilly 2001). The corpus of geographic scholarship on contentious politics involves three different sets of relationships. The first and most detailed are discussions of movement dynamics. The general designations of movement dynamics as such are actions amongst activists themselves such as negotiations of strategy (Routledge 2003), efforts to assign meaning to activism through enunciation of grievances and solutions (Kurtz 2003, Martin 2003) and the strategic actions that envelope the state and/or other targets of contention (Kitchen and Wilton 2003; Lessard- Lachance and Norcliffe 2013; Wainwright 2007). The second area of interest in contentious politics for geographic scholars is the state as either source of resistance to or support for social movement activism (Martin and Pierce 2013; Tresken 2011). The third aspect of geographic social movement scholarship is characterization of targets of opposition contra movement dynamics (Lessard-Lechance and Norcliffe 2013; Routledge 2003; Wainwright 2007). What is largely absent from McAdam, Tarrow and Tilly’s work and much of the