April 15, 2009 in Economy by Christopher Howell

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Here’s a pre-Tea Party Roundup. Also more info to local tea parties can be found here.

First, we have the Tea Party Anthem:

Riehl World View has a warning for both Republicans and Democrats wishing to put the tea parties in a partisan frame:

Any line in the sand being drawn here is not between the Left and the Right, Republican versus Democrat, or one socio-economic political agenda or class versus another. The line being drawn is between the proverbial We the People and those that have been governing America for decades.
…

There can be no question that an almost governing elite now spending trillions of dollars in part because it perceives a financial crisis is comprised of the very same individuals with the same ideas and plans that steered America down this path in the first place.



Patrick Ruffini celebrates the chaos:

If there are talking points, sample agendas, syncronized start and end times, or standard branding and collateral for the tea parties, I haven’t seen them. When Tom Matzzie and Eli Pariser did it old school and decided to send an e-mail to drive people to, say, an Iraq War vigil, they instantly created a level of organization we haven’t yet seen in the tea party movement.

Roger L. Simon coins TPDS, which we’ve already seen here.

You all remember Bush Derangement Syndrome when George W. Bush was blamed for virtually everything that went wrong from the Iraq War to your leaking faucet? [It hasn't really gone away.-ed. I know. I know. Maybe in 40 or 50 years] Well, we now have the arrival of a new phenomenon we can call Tea Party Derangement Syndrome. In TPDS tea party participants are accused of everything from being closet racists to armchair Timothy McVeighs. You can see some amusing examples of this emerging syndrome in the latter comments to my post of the other day – Tea Party role reversal: how to deal with agent provocateurs from the left.

Of course, what’s interesting about the Tea Party movement, whatever its success, is that it is pretty much about what it says it is – lower taxes and less government spending. A lot of people, Republican and Democrat, are concerned about our escalating debt and what this might mean for future generations. This is clearly a serious subject for serious discussion from whatever side of the issue you fall out on, but… no matter… the moment something gains momentum out comes the derangement crowd. In a certain way, it’s a sign of success.

Michelle Malkin has a warning to the GOP

If you have a GOP representative attending your tea party, be sure to look up his/her record on these and other key fiscal votes before you get to the event. Did the congressional reps speaking at your tea party vote for the $6 billion GIVE/SERVE national service boondoggle?

Did they fall for the Chicken Little scenarios plied by Paulson et al.? Ryan did. If so, the first words out of their mouths at the Tea Party protests should be:

I’m sorry.

And Glenn Reynolds aka Instapundit, details how this all got started and again, a warning to the Republicans:

The movement grew so fast that some bloggers at the Playboy Web site — apparently unaware that we’ve entered the 21st century — suggested that some secret organization must be behind all of this. But, in fact, today’s technology means you don’t need an organization, secret or otherwise, to get organized. After considerable ridicule, the claim was withdrawn, but that hasn’t stopped other media outlets from echoing it.

There’s good news and bad news in this phenomenon for establishment politicians. The good news for Republicans is that, while the Republican Party flounders in its response to the Obama presidency and its programs, millions of Americans are getting organized on their own. The bad news is that those Americans, despite their opposition to President Obama’s policies, aren’t especially friendly to the GOP. When Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele asked to speak at the Chicago tea party, his request was politely refused by the organizers: “With regards to stage time, we respectfully must inform Chairman Steele that RNC officials are welcome to participate in the rally itself, but we prefer to limit stage time to those who are not elected officials, both in Government as well as political parties. This is an opportunity for Americans to speak, and elected officials to listen, not the other way around.”

Personally, I think it’s unsurprising that this movement has taken off to the current level. From here it could easily get co-opted by the GOP or develop into a third party.

The main thing to learn here is that there is a natural (and large) constituency that wants nothing to do with any more bailouts at taxpayer expense. This is an anti-Wall Street, corporate banking constituency that could easily appeal to a large group of normally independent voters big enough to make both Democrats and Republicans take notice. The tax revolt portion of the protests should align the movements as a natural ally of the GOP, but both parties are complicit in bailing out Wall Street at the expense of everyone else. The Democrats response will be to predictably ignore, then belittle, then attack the movements. The Republicans response will be a little tougher as they have a choice to either embrace the movement and stiffen their opposition to the Obama stimulus and bailouts, but to do this they would first have to renounce their own complicity in the September 08 and GM bailouts.

If the GOP doesn’t, then it might be third party time. Ross Perot? Is that you laughing?

 

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