Head to Head: Tea Party

‘Spells defeat for republicans’

As a conservative, you would expect me to be a proponent of the tea party movement, saying that it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

My answer may surprise you. As I said I am a conservative, but I am not—I repeat—am not a proponent of the tea party. So your next question is why aren’t you? Aren’t you a conservative? Aren’t you supposed to be all about the tea party? Well no, and this is why.

The tea party movement is based on sound principles all going back to the founding fathers and the framing of the constitution. That’s all well and good, but sadly the tea party has turned into a breeding ground for anarchists and proponents of party division. These people will vote everyone out, even republicans.

The republicans will pander to the tea party members, but they will not join the republicans. This means that instead of a unified Republican Party fighting to defeat the democrats in an election it will split the conservative vote in two, handing the election to the democrats.

This would be disastrous, especially with all the pro-conservative momentum that has been building over the past two years.

This is my great fear, that all the momentum that has been built up will come crashing down in flames.

This may sound like heresy to most conservatives out there, but I am a realist, and I believe that if the tea party members don’t start thinking, the tea party spells defeat for republicans not only this year, but in 2012 as well.

‘Result of Republican Party’

After two wars, a powerful recession, a banking crisis and a near global economic meltdown, the average American became heavily involved in the political arena, for good reason. It’s understandable that libertarians banded together toward the end of the Bush administration to form what we now call the tea party. I applauded their efforts.

The current tea party movement is the botched result of a Republican Party infiltration for the purpose of revitalizing the conservative movement after the embarrassing 2008 losses. This new and outspoken tea party is composed of far-right political extremists, including religious fanatics, overzealous gun right activists, strict social conservatives and big government conspiracy theorists.

It is an interesting combination of ideologies all rolled up under one banner. The Republican Party assumed they had created a powerful voting bloc. However, I am quite concerned that such a group was allowed to become the mouthpiece of the Republican Party. After too much pandering toward this group, moderate Republicans have lost their power and ability in Washington and across the nation. The tea party now challenges moderate conservatives in their state primaries. If it wasn’t for America’s tendency to be generally composed of moderates, the tea party movement would have a chance to grasp power. However, tea party rhetoric is quite brash and frightening.

It’s apparent that the recent infighting between the republicans may result in a payoff for democrats in the fall. That’s all fine and dandy; however, given time, such a group could dismantle the Republican Party in the span of two to three years. The tea party could possibly cause a great rift between conservatives in this nation. As a moderate, I find the two-party system a great way to ensure fairness in Washington. I would hate to see single party dominance due to the fact that moderate republicans are afraid to maintain party behavior and unity. Now is the time for any moderate republican to make the choice to save their party, or watch it be eaten alive from the inside.

Posted by Matt Chambers on Sep 24 2010. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.