Bachmann and Tea Party Will Be a Force in 2012
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Honestly, I’m not sure. Because the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries are early in the electoral process winners of these primaries usually can use the boost to garner a party’s nomination. However, if we go back to 2007, 2008 Republican nominee John McCain came in 10th in this very same straw poll. That means a lot can happy between now and the GOP convention in Tampa, Florida next August.
But still, I have to admit to some interest in Michele Bachmann.
Bachmann is leans Right….as in so far Right she’s horizontal
She’s pretty far to the right…and when I say far to the right…she’d probably make the members of Anchor Rising reconsider their right wing bona fides. She supports the traditional view of marriage, is pro-life, has called for the dismantling of federally backed home loans, generally opposes minimum wage increases, and is a founding member of the House of Representatives’ Tea Party. Like I said, her conservatism would make many a conservative blush.
I believe there’s a significant segment of Republicans who still feel betrayed by former President Bush, the younger. He got us entangled in Iraq, increased the size of government, and gave rise to the phenomenon known back in 2008 as Barak Hussein Obama. For many of us, if he had held to conservative ideals we wouldn’t have faced as many of the problems we’re facing today and the country wouldn’t have reacted with a shift to the Left in recent years.
Bachmann is tapping into that angst and while the Ames Straw Poll doesn’t mean she’ll be the next Republican nominee, she represents a choice for people on the Right and even those in the center looking for a return to an American they remember.
The Tea Party isn’t going away
From a larger perspective, the Tea Party has been and I think will continue to be an attractive choice in 2012. Liberals don’t quite get why the Tea Party is attractive to center-leaning Americans, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise. There are two things at work. After the hangover of the Bush administration, during which time a “conservative” oversaw the ballooning of government we’ve had about 2.5 years of a tax/spend liberal who now presides over a country with the largest amount of national debt in our nation’s history. And Obama, where’s our economic recovery?
Bachmann and the Tea Party are offering ideas that are very different from Democrats and are more virulent than many Republicans. Tea Partiers are saying enough is enough and that the country needs to return to its roots. That’s appealing to centrists who aren’t like their liberal brethren in that they have no desire to destroy all of the moral codes that have defined the country for hundreds of years and who also don’t have faith in left wing ideology to solve our economic, educational, or foreign policy issues.
That hasn’t stopped the left from trying to marginalize a mostly grassroots effort and in my opinion, that only helps the Tea Party movement.
Tea Party results in Rhode Island are mixed because demographics are different in RI
Here in little Rhody, the Tea Party is alive and kicking (despite the recent split) but didn’t have the same splash in our state in 2010 as occurred nationally due to demographics. Simply put, Rhode Island is one of the most liberal states in the union and Tea Party rhetoric is anything but. Couple that with the fact that many Republicans in Rhode Island would be considered Democrats in most other states, and you don’t have the base of support that is latent countrywide.
There are still a few notable exceptions including Doreen Costa, but regardless of what’s happening here in Rhode Island Bachmann’s straw poll win illustrates that the Tea Party isn’t going anywhere and that it will be a force to deal with in 2012. Indeed, if the Tea Party is able to marginalize the President as an extreme left-of-center garden variety liberal I would not be surprised by a radical shift right in the 2012 elections.
One can only hope.
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Don Roach is a member of the Young Republicans. His personal blog is located at donroach.org and he can be reached via e-mail at donroach34@yahoo.com
Comments:
Jonathan Flynn
2:46am on Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Obama is not a tax/spend liberal. He is a stop the bleeding politician. The Tea Party types want to send us into a depression. With low interest rates and high unemployment, now is the time to do a Krugman style jobs program. The Tea party seemingly wants to bailout Wall Street and crush Main Street. Bachmann is a fool of the highest order.
Donn Roach
7:09am on Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Jonathan - what's he been asking for, for 3+ years? Tax those making over [insert rhetorical number that changes from time to time here].
He just hasn't gotten the chance.
as for spend, can you say Obamacare?
Travis Yowley
7:53am on Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Funny Don, just read a poll where women would not vote for Bachmann. Figures you would tie your wagon to that one...
Peter Cassels
10:11am on Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Yes, the Tea Party will take us back to the good old days---circa 1850.
Charles Drago
12:58pm on Wednesday, August 17, 2011
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Actually, I was thinking Berlin in the 1930s.
Tea Party members are cannon fodder for the guns of the worst people on the planet. They suffer a variation of the Stockholm Syndrome.
If you prefer, you may view them as today's Sonderkommando. In terms of American history, think Indian Police -- the traitors who assisted in the murder of Sitting Bull.
I draw no consolation whatsoever by noting that, in all instances, these poor, deluded fools ended up in the fire.
Michael Trenn
9:36pm on Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Mr. Drago: Your comment is at the same time the most reprehensible thing that I have ever read in any local comment page, and a prime example of bankrupt liberal hyperbole. I don't know about you, but I grew up in this town, and went to a high school with a high proportion of Jewish students. A number of these were the children of camp survivors. I have also known a few other people, including a landlord and his wife, who underwent the horrors of Nazi Germany and its attitude toward Jews. Your trivialization of the experiences of these people is something that should cause you immense shame. There is not a hole deep or dark enough for you to crawl into.
Michael Trenn
9:46pm on Wednesday, August 17, 2011
I did not mean to shortchange your ignorant comment about the Indian Police. Perhaps you are to ignorant to know that the various nations of Native American existed in a state of more or less permanent war among themselves, and this was not eliminated by the conquest of their areas by the United States under Manifest Destiny. For example, the Lakota were hated by the Kiowa and the Crow nations. The Indian Police were almost always recruited from outside the nation of a particular reservation. I would not call murdes by Indian Police "treason," because the victims were usually their inter-tribal enemies. It is not very different from the former Yugoslavia, where different religions, genetically identical, slaughtered each other. We waste a great deal of American treasure keeping them separated.
Michael Trenn
9:49pm on Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Please excuse the typos. It's late, and I have to work an extra job to live in RI.
Charles Drago
12:12am on Thursday, August 18, 2011
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Yawn.
Red Tomahawk, slayer of Sitting Bull, was Lakota -- famed, I might add, for his youthful bravery displayed in conflict with Lakota enemies.
Trenn is a model Tea Party fool -- butchering history, and proud of it!
As for my Sonderkommando reference, I suggest Trenn avail himself of a pair of asbestos underpants. He's going to need them when he's tossed by his masters into the boiling tea pot.
Phil Lagoy
11:04am on Friday, August 19, 2011
Why do Republicans blame George W. Bush for the spending during his administration. Where is the blame for the members of Congress like Bachmann, The Speaker, Cantor and all the others who have suddenly found "fiscal restraint" Don't just blame Bush, he had a Republican Congress the first six years helping him every step of the way. Also lets see the voting records of the above referenced members and how that compares to what they say today.