Questioning The Tea Party Movement
I will say this about Tea Parties: Those who try to give this an appearance of a bi-partisan movement are wrong. It is a mixture of conservatives and libertarians, but not people who were working on Obama’s campaign a year ago. There is nothing wrong with that. When Pres. Bush was occupying the White House, liberals held no shortage of rallies keeping with their tradition going back to the 1960s.
What makes today’s Tea Party movement so interesting is the fact that conservatives have no history of protesting. They were not happy with Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton, but they did not take to the streets. Granted, it is easier to organize with the Internet and social networking sites, but this is unheard of in GOP circles for 400 people to gather in Starkville on a Saturday in December. On Sunday, more than 1,800 people gathered in Omaha, Nebraska in a rally to protest Sen. Ben Nelson’s (D-NE) support for the Democrat’s healthcare legislation.
It is still eleven months until Election Day 2010, and while activists are not going to win an election on their own, we know the base needs to be excited. As of right now, Democrat’s trail Republican’s greatly in the enthusiasm field.
Majority in MS
12/22/9
