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Tea Party rattles America's educated class
Feared and mocked, movement has become wild card of U.S. politics.
By Mitch Potter,
Washington Bureau
THE TORONTO STAR
Published On Sun Jan 10 2010
WASHINGTON–Barely a week into a new decade that will redefine America's place in the world, the feisty yet fractious Tea Party movement is readying its next brew.
A landmark Tennessee convention in early February is aimed at transforming a year of caffeinated conservative rage into a political force to make heads roll.
Sarah Palin will serve as pourer-in-chief, guaranteeing the firebrand former Alaska governor a bully pulpit from which to bash President Barack Obama. Who, in this instance, will be a victim of terrible timing, as Palin's critique is scheduled hard on the heels of Obama's State of the Union speech.
As Tea time approaches, nerves are jangling. New York Times columnist David Brooks, a conservative intellectual, made big waves this week with a piece voicing fears that the "Tea Party brigades" have "the potential to shape the coming decade," using hard times to push the United States hard to the right.
Brooks' analysis hinged on a succession of polls suggesting that not only are America's natives more restless than ever, but that the grassroots fury is aimed at what he described as "the educated class" of Republicans and Democrats alike.
"The public is not only shifting from left to right. Every single idea associated with the educated class has grown more unpopular over the past year," wrote Brooks.
"The educated class believes in global warming, so public skepticism about global warming is on the rise. The educated class supports abortion rights, so public opinion is shifting against them. The educated class supports gun control, so opposition to gun control is mounting." And so on with foreign affairs, Brooks said, pointing to new Pew Research Center numbers showing a sharp rise in American isolationist sentiment.
Brooks' analysis – that the Tea Party phenomenon is on the rise – sparked frenzied debate.
Liberal blogger Bill Scher, author of the progressive political tome Wait, Don't Move to Canada, went after him head-on at the Huffington Post, noting that despite a year of noisy protests, the Tea Party movement has proven itself capable of nothing more than snap, crackle and pop. Every element of the Obama agenda, from health care to climate to stimulus, is proceeding apace.
"The far-right was knocked out completely," Scher told the Toronto Star. "Essentially the Tea people spent the entire year living in their own fever swamp, chanting ridiculous talking points like the `death panel' smear. And it changed nothing.
"The only way I can see the right-wing fringe actually metastasizing into something more would be for President Obama to be seen widely as a failure. And I don't think the middle of the country is anywhere close to making that judgment."
Grassroots and populist, the amorphous Tea protesters comprise a hydra-headed amalgam of sensibilities, some undeniably ugly. But some, despite Brooks' assessment, are actually extremely well schooled – and deeply offended by the notion that all opposition to Washington rests on ignorance.
"You do have people in the Tea movement who are – let's face it – insane. People who think Obama is the anti-Christ," said John Mark Reynolds, a philosophy professor at Biola University and an active voice for thoughtful conservatism.
"But the Tea Party is not a coherent ideological rage machine. And a huge number of people are drawn to it because they are mad as hell about government spending and bailouts. To parody them as ignorant buffoons is to completely misunderstand and underestimate them."
Most agree the movement is the wild card of American politics today – one that could evolve toward third-party status, but more likely will flex its muscle within Republican circles by pressing for the nomination of "core-value" conservative candidates over moderates. Several such battles are already underway, with Tea Party supporters rallying behind upstarts Marco Rubio of Florida and Gary Johnson of New Mexico.
But what the Tea movement lacks most is an actual leader. For a long time, Reynolds held out hope that Palin might be the one. But his disappointment was palpable in the scathing chapter-by-chapter review of Palin's Going Rogue he penned for firstthings.com.
Reynolds, an expert in Greek philosophy, was shocked to discover the book laden with misquoted citations of Plato and Aristotle – the result, he is almost certain, of a lazy attempt by the author (or ghostwriter) to quote-mine Google, to make Palin sound smart.
"It is just inexcusable. I'd like to be a Palinista but I want a president with a thoughtful world view – that is just a bare minimum requirement," Reynolds told the Star.
"Unlike David Brooks of the New York Times, I believe good ideas can come from people outside the box. Populism can be just as thoughtful and intellectually engaged and it is dangerous to suggest otherwise.
"But in writing a book full of spurious misquotations, Palin demonstrates she is not serious. She has charisma in droves, she lights up a room. But if she is too lazy to sit down, read books, develop her political philosophy, we can't just set the bar lower and lower for her until she passes it."
Political watchers anticipate a Democratic slide in November mid-term elections. But with Tea Party's future so amorphous and mainstream Republican strategy built around little more than obstructing Team Obama, an electoral reversal now might merely "contribute to the air of cynicism in which our citizens marinate," conservative columnist Peggy Noonan wrote in the Wall Street Journal.
"Republican political professionals in Washington assume a coming victory. They do not see that 2010 could be a catastrophic victory for them if they seize back power without clear purpose," Noonan wrote.
But the real battle will be in 2012, when the country takes the full measure of whether the Obama administration has put enough Americans back to work.
"It's not fair to dismiss the Tea Party people as rubes," said political blogger Scher.
"But the absolute bottom line for everything in 2012 is going to be the economy. Health care, climate, those elements of the Obama agenda are important but they don't get implemented full bore until later.
"The main thing is enough people have to be back at work for the public to feel we've turned the corner, for people to be able to look at the Obama administration and say, 'Okay, you are helping.' Without that, I can certainly see a liberal-progressive moment lost."
100% agree. Damn privileged negros growing up on food stamps, working days to get through night school, and yet still getting degrees from the best schools in the country.
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