It looks like all the recent scandals has lead to the Tea Party being back in the news again. Many Tea Party leaders are using the recent scandals (AP Phone record seizure, Benghazi and Libya, and the IRS targeting conservatives), as a means to recruit individuals,lobby more members of Congress, and promote key Tea Party principles. Tea Party members gathered in Washington and it seems like their group is more active then ever before. Given their successes (aiding in the election of several Republican senators and house members) in the 2010 congressional election, they may be able to use their groups newly founded energy to deviate from the GOP disaster in the 2012 presidential and congressional elections. Many people, however, believe that the Tea Party could overplay their hand. Here are a few things several Tea Party members said related to this post:
"This is the defining moment to say I told you so." - Katrina Pierson
"I personally feel so vindicated. But whats scaring me now is what's going on below the water line that we're not seeing." - Mark Falzon
"Suddenly, this is a very real demonstration of too much power ceded to government bureaucrats." - Matt Kibbe
What are your takes on all this? Is the Tea Party asking for too much / doing too much? How will these scandals (and Tea Party Reaction) reflect on upcoming elections?
4 comments:
It is unfortunate that the Tea Party is gleefully managing to take advantage of these recent scandals. This sudden spike in government abuse of power could temporarily drive citizens to support the Tea Party in the coming elections. It is apparent that the Tea Party members are really drinking up the wine of "I told you so." Still, it is not yet clear if this will help the party in the long-term.
I feel that that Tea Party should be reacting by giving out reasonable fixes to prevent future abuses of power, not simply going around and bragging about feeling "so vindicated." They seem to be overemphasizing the moment and getting in over their heads. Hopefully, clearer heads will prevail and people will think before voting for the Tea Party just because they were right at a particular moment.
Seeing as third parties rarely make a serious impact on elections, I doubt if the Tea Party will seriously shake up the foundations of America and pave the way for a three party system. These events come and go and I seriously expect this not to last. But if Congress cannot get its act together and work together to end the cause of these scandals, the Tea Party could gain more momentum.
It's the Tea Party! What do you expect? I mean remember the time when Bachman was trying to say that global warming isn't because of Carbon Dioxide and we can live with a whole bunch of it? To me, when they try to exploit a scandal, it is no different than a child trying to convince his parents there is a reason to buy him candy. I am not sure anyone can really take the Tea Party seriously. Most of the time 3rd parties can't be taken seriously just because they're too extreme and radical. The only 3rd party candidate, Ross Perot, that had any significant play in an election was independent from any small party. I believe the Tea Party isn't doing anything. Not too little and not too much. Why? Nobody is going to care about it anyways. We can all laugh it off and in a couple days it will die down. At least that's what I think will happen.
While I agree that the Tea Party's capitalization is puerile, I am unsure why this scandal was such a big deal in the first place. From what I heard, there was increased scrutiny on tax forms with the words "tea party" and some other tea party-esque langue; one tax specialist on NPR justified this different level of scrutiny because they were unsure if the Tea Party was a political party or if it was a subdivision of the Republican party. If it were a third party (as Matthew refers to it as), different tax standards would apply to the application because it is politically motivated and not simply a non profit. Maybe it is my bias toward the liberal side, but this seems like making a mountain out of a molehill. In fact, according to the BBC "[t]he US Treasury's inspector general for tax matters has said he found no evidence the IRS had acted under political pressure from the White House, and officials have said the practice was an effort to handle the heavy workload" ( BBC News ). This "scandal" along with Benghazi and AP has definitely emphasized the media's role as a policy agenda setter by being both the gatekeeper and a watchdog as a linkage institution.
Frankly I'm not really surprised at all. Its only natural for conservatives to capitalize on the scandals of the administration as a means to weaken the president and democrats. The efforts of the Tea Party to capitalize on the scandals will definitely strengthen the resolve of their supporters and possibly weaken their enemies. If I were a Tea Party member however I would be cautious of "overplaying my hand" because over-stressing the negative implications of these recent scandals can look kind of immature and make them appear to be only interested in gaining political power.
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