Reading the Tea Leaves

[stewstewstewdio]

Comments

[underlankers]

Along the same lines on this note is that we saw some Republicans - folks like Bill Bennett in Utah and Charlie Crist in Florida - who were more "moderate" ousted in favor of more ideologically favorable people. This backfired in a few places like Nevada and Delaware, but there's something to be said about the party better reflecting the ideological desires of their constituency. A failure of national GOTV efforts also hampered some of the closer races - the GOP could have credibly picked up 5 more House seats and perhaps Harry Reid's seat if there was a good plan in place.

^That is only the case if the ideological consistency can survive a challenge outside the confines of primaries, which every single Tea Party election that was contested did not.

[underlankers]

BTW, the GOP can thank the Tea Party Republicans for this: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-15/republicans-get-most-blame-for-ineffective-governing-in-national-u-s-poll.html

With my usual caveat that even when I agree with polls I consider what happens on election day to be the only real barometer.

[underlankers]

I agree that the Tea Party's influence as a whole was a net negative. The most explicitly avowed Tea Party candidates like Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell lost in every single campaign they ran in, while the Tea Party is busy persecuting such Stalinists as Orrin Hatch. The Tea Party may have made the Republicans more ideologically consistent but it's steadily enervating Republicans in general elections against Democrats.

No Republican interest here.

[sophia_sadek]

I find that the Tea Party entertainment factor is a big boost to the nation's morale. It gives us something to ridicule and help us feel better about our own position. There but for divine grace go I.

Re: No Republican interest here.

[mahnmut]

Having some lulz in a time of difficulty could be crucial for the general survival of sanity.

[kylinrouge]

The Tea Party has shown the nation what's it like when the fringe Republicans get a mouthpiece. It's going to be much more difficult to swallow their promises as Tea Partiers keep on keepin' on.

[dreadfulpenny81]

Part of the reason I distanced myself from the Tea Party. I understand some of their political views, but not all of them. And after the actions of Mark Williams and Judson Phillips, I was done. I went to one local Tea Party meeting, and that's only because our state Senator was there to speak about state legislation. Not to mention I got sick and tired of people within the Tea Party bitching at me because my views weren't dead-on with their status quo.