Matt Welch talks to Amash and Massie about Tea Party and Donald Trump

[tsai3904]

Does Sarah Palin’s Endorsement of Donald Trump Mean the Tea Party Is (or Should Be) Dead?

Not so fast, say Thomas Massie, Justin Amash, and Matt Kibbe

Matt Welch | Jan. 19, 2016

So was that what the Tea Party, and "constitutional conservatism," was all about then? Throwing support behind a Constitution-bending, big-government populist who on April 15, 2009—the day that Tea Parties were being held all around the country in protest of the Obama administration's government-aggrandizing agenda—was saying stuff like "I don't march with the tea party," and "[Obama] really has made a great impact on people….I think he's doing a really good job"?

...

Over the past 10 days I've been putting versions of that question to people with strong limited-government bona fides, including Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), and former FreedomWorks head-turned pro-Rand Paul superPAC'er Matt Kibbe. The following is a selection from their reflections on the Tea Party and political libertarianism in the age of Donald Trump:

Rep. Thomas Massie: Well, you know, everybody starts trying to write the obituary for the Tea Party, and I can tell you I've got sort of a skewed view of this, because I'm from Kentucky, represent Kentucky, and the Tea Party just won the governor's race. I mean we have not only a Tea Party governor, but a Tea Party lieutenant governor. Our lieutenant governor is a black female who was the Tea Party president in Bowling Green, Kentucky, now she's the lieutenant governor.

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More:
http://reason.com/blog/2016/01/19/wo...ment-of-donald

[cajuncocoa]

Sarah Palin's wing of the Tea Party (as opposed to the one that began with Ron Paul supporters) are two totally different things. Sarah Palin's Tea Party can die anytime as far as I'm concerned.

[osan]

Sarah Palin's wing of the Tea Party (as opposed to the one that began with Ron Paul supporters) are two totally different things. Sarah Palin's Tea Party can die anytime as far as I'm concerned.

See what playing fast and loose with language gets you? It becomes ever more difficult to tell what "Tea Party" means. Just as has been done with "liberal", the definition of the term becomes blurred as abuse comes into play.