bobbyw24
01-01-2010, 09:30 AM
Michael Munger | December 31, 2009
My apologies to Buffalo Springfield. But what’s happening with the Tea Party movement, and where it’s going, ain’t exactly clear. All we know at this point is that the villagers have pitchforks and torches, and are marching up the hill. But will they burn the castle of the Al Franken monster in Congress, or will they join Sarah Palin and her populist following and simply go RINO (Republican In Name Only) hunting? The point is that we could be heading toward 1994 all over again. Or toward 1964. The tea leaves are there for the reading. Either way, it should be interesting.
Here’s my prediction: Years from now, it will turn out that the biggest story of 2009 was the Tea Parties and the meteoric rise of their standard bearer, Sarah Palin, after her strange July resignation from Alaska’s governorship. (Sorry Tiger!)
The movement was at first dismissed as “Astroturf,” or not real grass roots. Participants have been called “Tea baggers,” with a salacious subtext. But the anger and persistence of these activists has finally started to surprise many in the mainstream media. The spark that seemed to light the 2009 Tea Party gatherings was CNBC analyst Rick Santelli’s famous February 19 on-air rant about the housing bailout. But the stacked kindling that set the pot boiling has been around much longer in the critiques of political aspirants, most notably those of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). And of course many libertarians have pressed on these issues since at least 1974, or perhaps since 1776.
The major media outlets, however, even so-called “conservatives” such as New York Times columnist David Brooks, are contemptuous. Tea Parties are “The world’s largest conventions of misspelled signs.” Tea Party hero Sarah Palin is “a joke.” One wry pundit mocked Palin’s appeal: “Finally we have a candidate for the people who loved George Bush's certainty, but were bothered by his education, rationality, and executive experience."
It will soon become clear that the anger behind the Tea Parties was the first sign of something bigger, something much deeper. But of what exactly? My tea leaves reveal two possible futures. First, this new celebration of conservative values may well be focused and directed by the Republican Party, reprising the electoral destruction of the Democrats in the 1994 midterms.
But the second possibility is that it will be the Republican Party, not the Democrats, that is torn apart trying to deal with its own internal contradictions. That’s what happened in the disastrous but portentous 1964 election: The GOP stood up for principle in its platform, and fell down at the ballot box.
read more
http://reason.com/archives/2009/12/31/reading-the-tea-party-leaves
My apologies to Buffalo Springfield. But what’s happening with the Tea Party movement, and where it’s going, ain’t exactly clear. All we know at this point is that the villagers have pitchforks and torches, and are marching up the hill. But will they burn the castle of the Al Franken monster in Congress, or will they join Sarah Palin and her populist following and simply go RINO (Republican In Name Only) hunting? The point is that we could be heading toward 1994 all over again. Or toward 1964. The tea leaves are there for the reading. Either way, it should be interesting.
Here’s my prediction: Years from now, it will turn out that the biggest story of 2009 was the Tea Parties and the meteoric rise of their standard bearer, Sarah Palin, after her strange July resignation from Alaska’s governorship. (Sorry Tiger!)
The movement was at first dismissed as “Astroturf,” or not real grass roots. Participants have been called “Tea baggers,” with a salacious subtext. But the anger and persistence of these activists has finally started to surprise many in the mainstream media. The spark that seemed to light the 2009 Tea Party gatherings was CNBC analyst Rick Santelli’s famous February 19 on-air rant about the housing bailout. But the stacked kindling that set the pot boiling has been around much longer in the critiques of political aspirants, most notably those of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). And of course many libertarians have pressed on these issues since at least 1974, or perhaps since 1776.
The major media outlets, however, even so-called “conservatives” such as New York Times columnist David Brooks, are contemptuous. Tea Parties are “The world’s largest conventions of misspelled signs.” Tea Party hero Sarah Palin is “a joke.” One wry pundit mocked Palin’s appeal: “Finally we have a candidate for the people who loved George Bush's certainty, but were bothered by his education, rationality, and executive experience."
It will soon become clear that the anger behind the Tea Parties was the first sign of something bigger, something much deeper. But of what exactly? My tea leaves reveal two possible futures. First, this new celebration of conservative values may well be focused and directed by the Republican Party, reprising the electoral destruction of the Democrats in the 1994 midterms.
But the second possibility is that it will be the Republican Party, not the Democrats, that is torn apart trying to deal with its own internal contradictions. That’s what happened in the disastrous but portentous 1964 election: The GOP stood up for principle in its platform, and fell down at the ballot box.
read more
http://reason.com/archives/2009/12/31/reading-the-tea-party-leaves