Promising Future of Tea Party – Evelyne Joslain

?L?Avenir Prometteur Du Tea Party? by BCiP member Evelyne Joslain, a specialist on US politics and the American Conservative movement, was published in – Politique Internationale ? La Revue n°139 – and a link to this article is given below.

http://www.politiqueinternationale.com/revue/read2.php?id_revue=139&id=1172&search=&content=texte

In summary, the article considers a more promising ?New Conservatives? future for the Republican Party following its defeat in the last two US presidential elections, beaten again by Barack Obama despite the impasse on his budget, 8% unemployment, a sharp increase in American poverty levels, chaos in the Middle East and, above all, a public debt exceeding $16 trillion (including $5 trillion of deficit contributed over the past four years of his term in office).

Defeat of the compromise tandem of Romney (Establishment) – Ryan (Not Quite Tea Party) left a party divided between moderates and minority Conservatives (Tea Party or traditional) each unwilling to take responsibility for the result, although the Tea Party blamed the Right for imposing a weak candidate in Romney.

According to the media and in Europe, the Republicans had lost because the ethnic minority votes gathered together by Barack Obama had, for the first time, submerged the White vote. The GOP had also become dangerously rightist under the influence of the Tea Party, a party from the past and approved by no more than 8% of the population. This was summed up in Newsweek by the headline ?You?re Old. You?re White. You?re History?!

The majority of the electorate had found Barack Obama?s progressive ?tax the rich? message more attractive than the detailed, austerity programme of the Republicans. Perhaps due to excessive courtesy and a fear of the racial factor in a politically-correct America, itself a prisoner of positive discrimination, Romney (and McCain in 2008) never dared point out Barack Obama?s weaknesses on the economy, ill-defined foreign policies and other scandals. This allowed Romney to be painted as an out-of-touch businessman insensitive to the problems of ordinary people. The Democrats were able to build a coalition of minority voters whose personal concerns came before national needs. Even though the electorate still remains majority white at 60%, 41% of the latter voted for Barack Obama, along with 93% of African-Americans and 71% of Hispanic/Asian origin. Romney also compounded his problems by openly stating that 47% of the electorate would never vote Republican.

Yet the Republican Party owes a debt to the Tea Party for revitalizing it after its defeat in 2008. An injection of fighting spirit enabled an improved showing in local elections and a majority to be gained in the House of Representatives (for the first time since 2006). The Tea Party was less prominent during the presidential elections although all the Conservative candidates (Tea Party or not) performed well, all Tea Party Senators getting elected and with just one loss in the House of Representatives.

The question is posed, therefore, whether there is a middle way between Republicans who want to collaborate with President Obama and those who don?t, the latter where the supposed ?extremists? of the Tea Party reside. Barack Obama relies on a Democratic Party which is nothing like the party of Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy, dominated as it is by a majority of ?Far Left? (who label Tea Party Conservatives ?Far Right?). The answer then to this cultural problem or split within the Republican Party can be found in what are termed ?New Conservatives?.

New Conservatives should find little difference between ?Fiscal Conservatives? and ?Social Conservatives?. The Tea Party can bring together its majority, fiscally conservative members with those more socially traditional but not so rigid in the Republican Party. A common aim would be to win back through ?New Conservatism? that part of the WASP electorate charmed by Barack Obama?s socialism but likely to find its current lifestyle progressively undermined by increasing taxes on the rich.

Administrator?s comment

Within the context of UK politics, this ?New Conservatives? reinvention of the Republican Party has a certain resonance with Tony Blair?s ?New Labour? and David Cameron?s development of a more socially responsible Conservative brand.

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