Of Tea Parties and Electoral Politics

The Obama Administration is in the midst of a two- level implementation of its campaign promises and, to the consternation of the Tea Party Movement, it is doing exactly what it was elected to do.

The resentful electioneering of the Tea Party Movement could make, but is just as likely to break, the Republican Party in the coming election cycle.

According to a New York Times/CBS News poll, the Tea Party Movement is at its core rich, old, well-educated white guys who think “change” means they lose their entitlement. In its totality, the Movement has drawn to itself and welcomed all the dissenting groups from across the right side of the political spectrum. It is made up of kindly grandmothers and corporate-funded astroturfers (Freedom Works and Americans for Prosperity). It is sponsored by Fox News and been joined by fringe groups, including the John Birch Society. It is just about everybody who thinks they are a conservative and has a complaint against the government.

The Tea Party Movement was, until recently, more sloganeering and marching than anything else. Now, however, it has entered the electoral process, intending thereby to “take back our country” from the usurpers. The main stream media is all excited over the impact of the Tea Party in the present election cycle. If you believe what they are reporting, and many Republicans and Democrats do believe, then the Tea Partiers are leading some kind of populist political revolution against the Obama program.

At a first and most basic level, Obama is trying to fix our broken political system. He is reaching out to conservatives on the issues – with moderate Supreme Court Justice choices, with rejection of the single-payer healthcare system, with the Republican generated cap and trade pollution proposal, with the refusal to hold voting shares in GM and with repeated attempts to bring the Republicans into the governing process. He was consistently rebuffed.

At the same time that the Obama administration was passing those big-ticket items, with little or no participation from the Republicans, they were also enacting consumer-oriented measures affecting both government and corporations. These include anti-recession measures like cash for clunkers, mortgage relief for those losing their homes and anti-fraud measures in the financial sector. They also enacted reregulation of credit card fees and interest rates,. These measures, mis-described as “big government,” have been enough to push the Tea Party into electoral politic.

The Tea Party Movement is now playing a dangerous political game. Right-wing politicians from Sarah Palin to Rupert Murdoch are endorsing, and the membership is supporting, Tea Party candidates on the hard right in opposition to mainstream Republican candidates. The way the Tea Partiers see it, if their candidates win, the Republican Party shifts sharply to the right. If they split the conservative vote and so lose the election, they have at least sent a clear message to mainstream Republicans: If you don't move to the right, we are coming after you. The Tea Party is set to purge any Republican politician, even John McCain, who associates with Obama.

The Republicans see the best of all worlds. They see the grassroots enthusiasm of the Tea Party merging with “real” Republican values to form a “Real Republican Party.” They see this scenario unfolding with the win by Scott Brown in Massachusetts and the losses by Dede Scozzafava in New York, Charlie Crist in Florida and Bob Bennett in Utah. The losers were not pure enough.

The Democrats see it differently. The loss of such senior, respected Republicans is a loss for the Republican Party, one that will undermine the party and leave it outside the mainstream, a refuge for extremists. That is not liberal wishfull thinking. The Tea Party took over the Maine Republican party convention with the result that , "The official platform for the Republican Party of Maine is now a mix of right-wing fringe policies, libertarian buzzwords and outright conspiracy theories." If that is the Tea Party platform, God help the Republicans.

Resentment is not what politics is about. In this country, when you lose an election, you respect the outcome and your opponent. You don't demonize the winners or the losers. We were supposed to learn that lesson on the playground and in sports.

Tea parties are for little girls with imaginary friends, not old, white guys with imaginary grievances. If you are such a little girl, go to the movies. If you are an aggrieved old white guy, suck it up because resentment will not serve you or your cause.