Blog #9 [Make up]

 As we read the very in-depth research paper on the evolution of the tea party, and pair it with our reading from the class text, we are left to wonder. What exactly is the American tea party now? What was it at its founding, and what does it say about the future of American politics?

Having been a very conscious and political person involved since 2008 when I volunteered for then Senator Obama’s California primary campaign, the tea party has been a mainstay in my life. Being a student of history, I understand that backlash-especially white backlash to the first black president is to be expected. However, at no point during the first few years of the tea party phenomenon did I think that their voice or school of thought would grow to the volume it has.

In the beginning the American Tea Party presented as it still does, thinly veiled racism mixed with conservative Republican values. The racism assertion is not debatable in my eyes given the footage of speeches given about President Obama in which he was called unthinkable things, and is further supported in the section entitled “Who are the Tea Partiers.” The aforementioned section puts their numbers as almost 90% white, and over 50. These statistics beg the question if a 90% white group, that makes assertions as to why certain social safety nets are less valuable than others based on who uses them, isn’t that an interest group? Their interest being the health and safety of white Americans, and no one else. Which is a fair way to see the roots of the tea party, as a interest/concern group about the place of white Americans in the country’s future? Not that there were not other viewpoints that were absent of race which built on conservative principles, but the defining feature of the tea party certainly was their palpable ethnocentrism. Therefore, given that 75% of polled Tea Party members were also registered Republicans, you can argue that they were an interest group for white Americans within the Republican party.

While it certainly fair to say that the tea parti’s role of interest group within the Republican Party is where the Tea Party is to this very minute. However, to not acknowledge the massive influence the Tea Party has had on the RNC, and the new wave of Conservative candidates would be wrong, and incorrect. No person showcases that more than Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia who founded the “America First Caucus” which has the express written intent of the  “common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions.” It was a group for white people only, a move that was too racist for even Trump radicals. However, Representative Greene gained mass support online and around the nation that she has since converted into rallies. 

Despite the largely angry public reaction from Republican leadership, it must be said that Representative Greens attempt to create a white only caucus within the government was their line. None of the horrid things she had said before then were over the line or drew much condemnation. Only when it went against the literal letter of the law, did opposition sprout up. Which indicates the prevalence of the racism that seeped into the RNC by the tea party. No issue is more of a canary for this than immigration. During the Trump presidency the Republican controlled government attempted, and followed through on extremely aggressive immigration policies. The proposed Muslim ban would have ceased immigration from Muslim countries-even if they had never produced a terrorist that was active in America. Further, a ramp up of family separation on our Southern border brought the use of American tax payer funds into debate. Oddly enough, the Tea Party showed support for the use of taxpayer funds to lock up and treat children as criminals, yet the thought of supporting these children’s transition into America is controversial.

If we now disregard my obvious distaste for the Tea Party, and 98% of the things they stand for, I can also recognize their achievements. The Tea Party was able to organize, fight and win within the RNC which radically changed the platform of the party. This was done by organizing, and working with other factions found within the party, to unite around common goals. The result is the election of Donald Trump, and record turn out for Republicans in almost every elections since the Tea Party became active. Their achievements in both voter drives, and candidate recruitment cannot be denied.