After fending off a tea party challenge in 2010, Rep. Denny Rehberg quickly decided to sign up for the movement: He joined the Tea Party Caucus as soon as he returned to the House.
But two years later, Rehberg wants a Senate seat, and in the 2012 version of Montana politics, Rehberg is Mr. Bipartisan. He touts his vote against the Paul Ryan budget; talks up his work with a New England liberal, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.); and has embraced expansion of a children’s health program.
He doesn’t mention his tea party membership.
Rehberg isn’t unique in looking for some distance from the diminished tea party brand. In close Senate and House races across the country, lawmakers who ran toward the movement in 2010 won’t ascribe the “tea party” label to themselves or, like Rehberg, avoid talking about it all together.
That’s not to say grass-roots tea party supporters have disappeared; they are still there ready to work for Republican candidates. And the movement remains a strong force in Republican primary politics, forcing many candidates rightward in their positions. Still, some activists acknowledge that some candidates can’t be quite as open about their tea party connections in tight races this year.
Yes the Teabaggers are still a force in American politics. But now, after demonstrating to the American people that their influence is the death of bipartisanship, they have to work behind the scenes, much like the KKK had to start doing after their racist rhetoric fell out of favor with the public at large.
In fact today the Teabaggers are even more universally disliked than Atheists:
Of course, politicians of all stripes are not faring well among the public these days. But in data we have recently collected, the Tea Party ranks lower than any of the 23 other groups we asked about — lower than both Republicans and Democrats. It is even less popular than much maligned groups like “atheists” and “Muslims.” Interestingly, one group that approaches it in unpopularity is the Christian Right.
What? WE'RE more popular than both the Teabaggers and the Christian Right? Now that is some very good news indeed!
Hopefully this move away from extremism will mean that soon we can look forward to the return of the moderate, and that cooperation and collaboration will one day no longer be considered dirty words in Washington. You know, like it used to be back when politicians could actually get things done for the American people, and did not have to worry about a primary challenge cor that success.
"Interestingly, one group that approaches it [tea baggers) in unpopularity is the Christian Right."
ReplyDeleteThen why is this election so close? Even if the President is re-elected, things won't be different. The GOP will be livid that they didn't meet their goal of making him a one-term president. They'll probably try to impeach him on some fabricated charge. Idiot Izza has sure been trying his best to find one.
My theory: After 8 years of George Bush, hardly anyone wanted to be outed as a "Republican", so the more moderate (read: sane) members latched on to the "Libertarian" bandwagon, while the lunatic fringe hopped aboard the "Tea Party" short bus.
ReplyDeleteWell, with almost no one openly admitting being a Republican, the right now had to court two new groups. The Libertarians were easy, since they were the sane group, but grabbing that Tea Party vote took a little more work -- like trying to calm a petulant child at Chuck E Cheese.
So here we are, 4 years later... and if you're conservative and don't want to be labeled a nutcase or look as if you're currying the nutcase vote, then you start distancing yourself from the Tea Party. It's basically the same thing that happened in 2008 when all the Republicans "disappeared". They're simply shifting back to their roots.
The divisive TBungers will go down in history as a reactionary, ignorant, racist stain on the fabric of our politics.
ReplyDeleteWith (or without) the Halloween costumes.
Delete... as the pendulum swings ...
ReplyDelete... Newton's Cradle...
... look it up...
Throughout history there has always been that visceral tension between Progressives who realistically look forward, and Regressives who longingly look backwards at a time when "everything was better", which it was not.
Balance is but momentary, but each group in turn gains momentum as far as possible and inevitably is forced by the universal gravitational pull to return towards the center, which then sets up the swing to the opposite site.
To put it into more a more "real world political" recent context:
The conservative Fifties led to the Hippie Sixties powered by women liberated by "The Pill" from accidental pregnancy and men fighting the draft which only those wealthy enough to send their sons to college and receive deferments could escape, to the ambivalent Seventies giving rise to the neocons of the Eighties.
Now consider the Nineties and the first decade of this century and you will find those cycles ever shortening, partly driven by new information technologies and the maturing of the power of the neocons supported by the greed of power hungry titans of corporatism under the feckless GWB.
May the return to some sort of communal sanity that the above model predicts materialize during this second decade of the 21st Century despite the cynical SCOTUS decision of Citizens United.
Remember that the Obama administration and the democratic wing of the legislature as well as that of the judiciary achieved much in spite of the fervent opposition of the Regressives!
We are at the point of Balance!
We must gain momentum!
VOTE!
well stated!
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