Teabaggers Protesting Teagbaggers: Why the Tea Party Will Hurt the GOP Elections in 2010

By Paydon Miller

            “Teabaggers” are the hot new item in the political world.  They’re angry.  They’re motivated.  They’re eccentric and are always good for a photo or a quote.

            According to the Tea Party Patriots, one of the leading voices in the wildly unorganized movement (which claims no allegiance to any party, mind you) claims to be frustrated with the status quo, calling for “smaller government, fiscal responsibility and free market [economics].”  Despite claiming that both parties are equally to blame for the current state of American politics- which prominent faces of the Tea Party have done numerous times- the figureheads of the Tea Partiers are uniformly two things: Republican and batshit crazy. Glen Beck, Sarah Palin and Michelle “Minnesotans need to be armed and dangerous” Bachmann.

            This supposed grassroots Tea Party movement (which is actually being organized by Freedom Works, which is run by former Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX)) has spawned most of the infamous clips of people at town hall meetings with their representatives.  You know the people with someone standing up, screaming and being often escorted out by security and disrupting any kind of meaningful exchange like their mothership, teapartypatriots.org, instructed them to?  These are the same people who are brandishing weapons at presidential events as a show of “freedom,” but with the obvious intent of intimidation.  These are the same people who carry around signs at protests that are racially motivated (“Obama’s Plan: White Slavery,” “Ken-Ya Trust Obama?”), blatant calls for violence against the President (“Guns Tomorrow!” “Hang ‘Em High!”  ) or spewing homophobia (“Obama was not Bowing, He was Sucking Saudi Jewels,” “Vote No on National Healthcare! Do you want Barney Frank doing your Colonoscopy”). For those who don’t know, Barney Frank is a homosexual Congressman from Massachusetts.  High brow stuff here, guys.

Truly, the lowest common denominator of the right wing is being brought to the forefront of American politics.  And with this new fervor the Tea Partyists have shown, the Republican Party are desperately trying to appeal to them with veiled hints of supporting the xenophobia and misguided comparisons to any and all historical leaders your 11^th grade history textbook could give you.  They have even been embraced by political figures like former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

            Now, chapters of the Tea Party are cropping up across the country, endorsing candidates in elections of all sizes, often running their own candidates or endorsing ones they see as ideologically acceptable.  For instance, the Tea Party recently jumped behind Rand Paul, son of Libertarian Congressman and former Presidential candidate Ron Paul, in his bid to win the election for the Senate seat from Kentucky. With that weight thrown behind him, Paul has skyrocketed in the polls despite great controversies surrounding his campaign staff.  Polls now show him beating on Democratic primary candidate and creeping up on the other.

The kicker to all of this is that in generic polling asking a respondent what party they would be most likely to vote for, the Tea Party would beat the Republican Party.  According to Politico.com, 23% said they would vote for the yet unofficial Tea Party, while 18% would vote for a Republican.

So really, the Tea Party movement is the worst thing that can happen to the GOP.  If the Tea Party keeps picking up steam and has the funds to run some candidates rather than endorsing ones already running, which is an increasing possibility in the deep South where the Tea Party is especially popular, split tickets are a very real concern.  In all the Tea Party’s excitement, we’re going to be seeing a lot of Republican/Tea Party vote splitting, leaving the smaller but consistent Democratic voting base free to sweep in and win with the plurality of the vote. 

There’s even a chance of this happening in God’s Country – Texas - though the GOP would have you believe otherwise.  A well-financed Tea Partier named Jerry Lee Hall is challenging 15-time incumbent Ralph Hall (no relation) for his spot.  While chances are good that the incumbent Hall will win, the challenger Hall is still well financed enough ($350,000 in his warchest as of Sunday, January 10, 2010 according to the Dallas Morning News…the most of any challenger in Texas) to pose a considerable threat.  Simply put, every dollar Rep. Hall, the oldest man in Congress, spends on fending off primary challengers is one less dollar he can spend in the general election.  And what happens if such a well-financed challenger decides to run as a third party?

And with the heightened level of organization with the Tea Party, we see not more organized efforts, but more in-fighting.  Tea Partiers are actually planning on protesting the first Tea Party convention.  The Party that claims to be for spending reduction will be charging $550 a ticket and flying in Sarah Palin (who has a $100,000 speaking fee) to be the keynote speaker of the convention on a private plane.  Some Tea Partiers say the convention is a disgrace because the convention is being run for-profit.  This has caused many sponsors and attendees to pull out of the convention. 

What I’m saying to ring-wingers is that while Obama and Democrat’s popularity has dropped considerably, the majority of ring-wing voters still feel the Republican Party doesn’t deserve another chance, as the generic Party poll I referenced earlier indicates, and the Tea Party is not nearly well enough organized to mount considerable wins.

Don’t believe me?  It already happened in New York.  The GOP endorsed Republican DeDe Scozzafava for a special election to fill a vacated House seat.  A group of ultra right-wingers, led by the infamous Sarah Palin felt that the nomination was too liberal and came to the district to endorse the far more conservative Doug Hoffman.  In light of his newfound endorsements of Palin, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and former Senator Fred Thompson, Hoffman ran as the Conservative Party candidate. With the influx of money Hoffman received from varying sources, Scozzafava was forced to drop out, then endorsing her Democratic opponent, Bill Owens.  Owens won the election in a conservative district by 5 points.

It’s already happening, sports fans.  And I don’t see any sign of that kind of the “best chance of winning vs. ideologically perfect” debate that the Tea Partiers bring with them when they endorse people going away anytime soon.

So don’t be shocked when this “landslide” election that is supposed to swing Republicans back into power has a lot of Democrats winning with 45% of the vote and the ultimate power shift is less than breathtaking.  The very movement that revitalized your floundering party is the same thing that’s going to stop any kind of major resurgence in the ’10 elections.

And to Democrats and progressives alike, believe me, I dislike the Tea Partiers just as much as anyone.  But with the new Tea Party Convention being protested by Tea Partiers, the GOP and the Tea Parties are cannibalizing themselves.  They have enough false security and a false sense of an impending Congressional overthrow.  They have enough rope to hang themselves, just sit back and watch them do it.