Shortly, very shortly as a matter of fact, after President Obama was inaugurated, the Tea Party sprang into being as a national movement. It dominated Fox News, was heralded by Glenn Beck and others, and emphasized fiscal responsibility. Perhaps its moment in time can be punctuated by the 2010 mid term elections when conservative candidates supported by tea party type groups swept the House of Representatives.
Many of us who were sitting on the sidelines watching predicted that this group was a flash in the pan. We recognized some of the names from other previous conservative political thrusts. Some of us felt that many of the core leadership were simply the values contingency of the Republican party in sheeps clothing. In Vriginia, looking at the work accomplished in the General Assembly during this session’s first half, it appears that little else was done other than legislation dealing with social issues.
Four major abortion bills are still at various stages of passage, drug testing welfare recipients barely got tabled until next year, immigration and citizenship are still being batted around, length of teachers’ contracts are at issue and whether gay couples can adopt have all dominated the political scene. Not much has been done with jobs debt, or employment. Actually more time has been spent on who cannot work than who can work. While the above legislation isn’t the only legislation discussed, it has dominated the floor and the news. The only tax issues seem to be geared at amazon.com.
Today a personhood bill goes to the floor of the General Assembly. Personhood has been clearly defined by the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution. In fact, many people concerned over immigration have called for repeal of the 14th amendment because those born here in the United States are citizens regardless of the citizenship of the parents. Some people don’t like that. If Virginia’s personhood bill goes through, it appears that fetuses will be citizens of the United States also. Virginia will have its own bumper crop of ‘anchor babies’ 9 months sooner than the rest of the nation. I am still scratching my head over this one. I am not sure how the personhood folks are going to deal with the ‘anchor baby’ folks. I would have thought they were the same group of people but apparently not. The goals of each group seem to be on a collision course.
Meanwhile, the tea party seems to have disappeared, at least under the tea party banner. Who is their candidate? Whatever happened to the fiscal issues during the presidential elections? I have heard no plans for our debt. Mostly we have seen candidates who simply want to say “I am more conservative than the next guy'” The Republican candidates seem hell-bent on destroying each other. It has been quite a side show when considering the presidential debates, the Virginia General Assembly, and the national contraception issue. Issues decided 40 and 50 years ago are resurfacing. Clearly Americans aren’t going to have the hands of time turned back on them without a fight. 🙄
Moon, you are correct. The economic issues that brought the Tea Party types to congress havne been forgotten. The deficit is now hightr today than it was a year ago before the tejadi congressman took office. Abortion is, evidently, the top priority here for Virginia Repugs and elsewhere around the country. There is only one phrase to describe the tea party today – abject failure.
Here is a related and interesting excerpt from Paul Krugman in the NYT
Severe Conservative Syndrome
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: February 12, 2012
But Mr. Romney is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, and whatever his personal beliefs may really be — if, indeed, he believes anything other than that he should be president — he needs to win over primary voters who really are severely conservative in both his intended and unintended senses.
So he can’t run on his record in office. Nor was he trying very hard to run on his business career even before people began asking hard (and appropriate) questions about the nature of that career.
Instead, his stump speeches rely almost entirely on fantasies and fabrications designed to appeal to the delusions of the conservative base. No, President Obama isn’t someone who “began his presidency by apologizing for America,” as Mr. Romney declared, yet again, a week ago. But this “Four-Pinocchio Falsehood,” as the Washington Post Fact Checker puts it, is at the heart of the Romney campaign.
How did American conservatism end up so detached from, indeed at odds with, facts and rationality? For it was not always thus. After all, that health reform Mr. Romney wants us to forget followed a blueprint originally laid out at the Heritage Foundation!
My short answer is that the long-running con game of economic conservatives and the wealthy supporters they serve finally went bad. For decades the G.O.P. has won elections by appealing to social and racial divisions, only to turn after each victory to deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy — a process that reached its epitome when George W. Bush won re-election by posing as America’s defender against gay married terrorists, then announced that he had a mandate to privatize Social Security.
Over time, however, this strategy created a base that really believed in all the hokum — and now the party elite has lost control.
The point is that today’s dismal G.O.P. field — is there anyone who doesn’t consider it dismal? — is no accident. Economic conservatives played a cynical game, and now they’re facing the blowback, a party that suffers from “severe” conservatism in the worst way. And the malady may take many years to cure.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/opinion/krugman-severe-conservative-syndrome.html?_r=1
Failure.
I certainly don’t think George Bush had a mandate in the 2000 election. If he had a mandate at all, it came on 9/11/01. Even then, the mandate was very unclear other than to kill Bin Laden.
No, he just thought that he had one. Social security isn’t even in the conversation anymore
I sure don’t see much going on with them (the tea party) now. Palin says she is tea party and makes kettle noises but that’s about it.
What do they hope to accomplish?
Big Dog: Are you out there doing the bull dance today? Things are looking good. Great way to start the week.
“Is the Tea Party relevant today?”
Not really. CPAC showed that……..
In what way? I didn’t follow cpac closely this year.
@marin
I think CPAC’s straw poll winner was Romney, the least genuine Tea Party candidate.
The Tea Party was really just the farthest right wing of the Repub. Party.
Censored is right about Romney. If CPAC represents the conservative wing of the party and Romney won….. we’re done.
If Newt and Rick can also present themselves as TP Champions *and* draw conservative votes. we’re done.
We’re handing this country over to those that want to control every function of our lives and engage in endless wars.
We’re handing this country over to those that want to control every function of our lives and engage in endless wars. – too funny, I thought that was the last administration.
Pat, I don’t put all the blame on Obama.
Let’s roll it all back to 1913…………………………………….
@Pat, I am with you. Bizzaro world over at Marins.
You bring up a good point Pat, although probably unintended. All the Obama Administration has been is a third term for GWB. Nearly every single Bush policy has been continued.
A somewhat related article by professional colleague David Rieff in Foreign Policy Magazine entitled “Save Us From the Luberal Hawks.” http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/02/13/syria_is_not_our_problem#.TzncXAQjagY
Thanks for the new label – liberal interventionists. I like it. Something to go along with neo-con and chickenhawks.
I think if more children of those chickenhawks had the possibility of serving in combat that we’d be less likely to click the undeclared war button so much.
If we go to war – lets do it right – declare war, start up a draft and begin rationing.
@Cato the Elder
Cato – true – many of the Bush policies have been extended –