It is obvious to even casual observers that the Tea Party “movement” is little more than rightwing extremism in new packaging. While the traditional media craves new phenomena for talking heads to speculate about, the Tea Party is a motley crew of disaffected Republicans, crackpots, conspiracy theorists, and racists, with ignorance and misguided rage as their common thread. And much of the Tea Party is funded by corporate interests masquerading as grassroots activists.
But high unemployment and the lingering effects of a great recession have created unhappiness with the current Administration and the Democratic Party in general. While the Obama Administration is not responsible for the meltdown of 2008, it has been in power over a year and the economy is still in poor shape in many areas. Even though the worst is likely over, it is hard to garner support based on the notion (however truthful) that at least things aren’t a lot worse.
The conventional wisdom was that the Democrats should brace themselves for a “wave” election in November, with highly-energized Tea Party candidates primed for major victories. Scott Brown’s victory back in January was said to be a premonition, with a reliable Blue State electing a Tea Party favorite for the Senate seat of liberal lion Ted Kennedy.
But then reality intruded.
Brown sided almost immediately with the Democrats on a jobs bill, drawing the ire of the Tea Party faithful who had propelled him to victory; and just this week, he again voted with the Democrats on financial regulatory reform (despite GOP attempts to label the bill as another bank bailout).
Even more interesting is the case of Tea Party darling Rand Paul, son of Congressman Ron Paul, in Kentucky. Paul bucked the GOP establishment, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, by running as a Tea Party candidate in the Republican senatorial primary and promising to bring conservative purity to Washington. On Tuesday, he won by more than 20 points.
But his victory lap turned into a fiasco. Appearing on the Rachel Maddow show that night, Paul indicated that he opposes the part of the Civil Rights Act that allows the government to bar discrimination in private businesses. Citing one of the extreme tenets of libertarianism, Paul inferred that private businesses should be allowed to discriminate because of their private ownership.
Paul’s libertarianism is so extreme that he also disapproves of government standards mandating access for people with disabilities. And on Good Morning America the next day, he called President Obama’s criticism of BP “un-American” because Obama wanted to blame the company for the Gulf Oil spill (just for the record, BP is a foreign company).
Ironically, Paul’s libertarian credentials don’t extend to the bedroom or to women’s reproductive rights, since he believes the government is right to discriminate against gays and should ban a woman’s right to choose.
In a television interview that shouldn’t be missed, Paul’s Democratic challenger, Jack Conway, went on CNN and completely destroyed Paul’s positions—foreshadowing a tight Senate race in red-state Kentucky, and providing a model for how other Democrats should challenge rightwing ideologues.
Paul went on to cancel his Sunday appearance on Meet the Press (one of only three times this has happened in the show’s more than 40-year history), and it is clear he’s in damage-control mode.
Paul’s meltdown and Scott Brown’s apparent conversion to a moderate New England Republican are high-profile national examples of a Tea Party that’s more bark than bite; a smaller episode on the local level also points to the Party’s inherent limitations.
In Montgomery County, Maryland, a carbon tax was recently put before council members for a vote. Dozens of Tea Party activists and a local energy company spouted all sorts of climate change denier nonsense, hoping to make the council hearings a replay of the healthcare town hall debates last summer, when legislators were screamed down and cowed. Not this time, however: council members voted 8-1 in favor of the carbon tax, and in their statements said that the behavior of Tea Party activists actually emboldened them even more to vote in favor of the measure.
While a few data points do not indicate a trend, it appears that people are getting fed up with Ted Party attempts to stifle rational discourse and legislative progress. The American people are getting a close look at the Tea Party’s true colors, and they’re being turned off.
Nothing would deal the movement a more serious blow than to defeat Rand Paul, so please consider giving to Paul Conway’s campaign; judging by his performance on CNN, he certainly deserves it.
Jason Scorse