Guest Article - Tea Party - Never Give Up

The Misunderstood Tea Party Movement
From the UK’s Telegraph

"First they were ignored. Then they were derided as the tools of Big Money. Then they were branded as racists, the unhinged, the unwashed, the paranoid, the subversive and the ignorant – or some combination thereof.

Now, they stand accused of aiding and abetting the enemy by splitting the Republican party and giving Democrats hope for the November mid-terms. It has been a rough ride for members of the Tea Party in the 19 months since their movement sprung up.

But each insult and attempt to marginalise them seems only to have stiffened their resolve and swelled their numbers. Polling indicates that they are now more popular than either Republicans or Democrats. Despite all the claims they are extremists, around half of the electorate now identifies with the Tea Party and up to a quarter view themselves as members.

The time for them to be taken seriously is long overdue. The Tea Party will be pivotal in November. It has ripped up the playbook for the 2012 Republican primaries. And it could just end up kicking President Barack Obama out of the White House.

Christine O’Donnell’s Senate primary victory in tiny Delaware last week rocked the world of the Republican establishment in Washington. Widely portrayed as a kook and bitterly opposed by the Republican party, she defeated Mike Castle, a moderate Republican who had held continuous political office in the state since 1965.

Castle was widely regarded as a shoo-in against the Democrat on November 2nd. O’Donnell is a political novice and a patchy campaigner. The secret of her win? Endorsements by Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor, and the Tea Party.

Oh, and Delaware primary voters didn’t give a fig about Castle’s electability. As far as they were concerned, he was a professional politician who was a RINO – Republican In Name Only – who could not be trusted. In the Senate, he might switch parties or vote with the Democrats to give Obama a bipartisan sheen. And, after 45 years in office, why not give someone else a chance?

The Tea Party has often been portrayed as a fringe group within the Republican party or a support network for Palin.

Dig deep and you will find that it is neither. There is, of course, a problem with the word “it”. Although the Tea Party is referred to as a single entity, it is really a loose conglomeration of some national organisation and a plethora of groups formed in local neighbourhoods all over America. Standing for Taxed Enough Already, it took its inspiration from the 1773 Boston Tea Party protest against British colonialists.

A desire for small government, lower taxes and fidelity to the United States Constitution binds members together. There is a prevailing mood of anger towards Washington and a sense of having been conned. Mention the $700 billion (£448 billion) bailout, health care reform or cap and trade legislation and they will go into conniptions.

But beyond that, the Tea Party is a vast, teeming muddle of opinion and impulses. Many of its strong supporters don’t attend public meetings. “The Tea Party is more an attitude than anything organised,” one Southern conservative told me."