As the Republican Primary moves forward, Donald Trump appears to have solidified more than half of the TEA Party vote, unveiling some startling ideological differences amongst people associated with the TEA Party movement. On the Trump side of the divide, TEA Party members support protectionism, a larger more business friendly federal government, and appear more populist and nationalist than their conservative and constitutionalist “allies”. On the other side are the conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians who’s agenda of free trade, lower spending, lower taxes, limited government, and worries over the debt-crisis appears to have lost much of its’ support.
Frankly, I am uncertain whether the TEA Party can survive such fundamental differences in its’ ranks. Protectionism and free trade cannot co-exist. Big government and limited-government cannot co-exist. The difference between spending more and spending less may prove more divisive in the future than it has to date.
If the TEA Party is not a limited government, strictly constitutionalist movement aimed at reducing spending, taxes, and debt, then I’m not sure I have much use for it, politically. If the TEA Party truly does support Donald Trump, then the TEA Party is something I never thought it was – a largely unprincipled and populist movement. The trouble with populism is that it is inevitably damaging to the foundation and infrastructure of a Republic. It grows government power, creates more laws, and has a higher federal impact on the economy (leading to fewer jobs, higher prices, and further centralization of control). I don’t want any part of a movement centered around that.
The only thing populists and conservatives have in common is their opposition to the current leadership in the Republican Party, which is blamed for essentially allowing liberals and leftists to control the entirety of the federal system. That’s not enough of a bond to keep the TEA Party together.
I cannot imagine that I’m alone in feeling this way.
Now, I do not imagine that TEA Party’s will cease meeting or that resistance to the Republican Establishment will wane. What I do imagine is that the Trump supporting populists and nationalists will fight to control their local TEA Party’s against the Cruz/Lee/Paul supporting conservatives, libertarians, and constitutionalists. I can imagine, for instance, a county having two different TEA Party’s – one for the Trump People and one for the conservatives. Whether or not this would make the TEA Party’s more or less effective is impossible to tell, but it is hard to imagine a net positive result.
I cannot support organizations that support higher tariffs, the illegal targeting of innocent civilians overseas, unconstitutional executive orders and powers, or which justify increasing federal spending and debt in order to fund what they consider to be a more conservative agenda.
I’ve followed the TEA Party movement closely since its’ inception as a national presence and I am truly disappointed in the direction many of our TEA Party’s have taken. I do not wish to see the solid principles upon which this movement began tossed aside for a return of big government populism, nationalism, or nativism.
TEA Party’s ought to exist to hold their local, state, and national representatives accountable to sound fiscal and constitutional policy. It should not condone protectionist tariffs which will simply serve to make exporting American manufacturing more difficult, while raising prices and lowering our standard of living here at home. The TEA Party’s should not support the same sorts of executive excess we’ve seen under the rule and administration of President Barack Obama.
This is why Trump is so troubling and why so many of us conservative TEA Party members seem so aghast at the new environment we see around us. We always understood that people were angry – we simply assumed that everyone around us was angry for the same reasons. This has, sadly, turned out not to be the case. As uncomfortable as it is to say this, I believe that conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians need to pay attention to who is leading their TEA Party’s and that they ought to support people who support the same underlying principles they hold.
This populist/nationalist Trump phenomenon is not simply going to go away, even if he loses. We have not seen this level of progressive populism since Theodore Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover and unless we take responsibility for dealing with it, we could watch our country suffer the same caustic consequences we suffered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
To be clear, I am not writing this because I want to cause division. I am writing this because we are divided.
Originally published on PendletonPenn.com
32 comments
Va TEA Parties are a joke and are downright wrong against illegal immigration.
When they have an opportunity to combat illegal immigration through illegal employment they sit on their ” bought and paid for hands”.
TEA Party example; Let’s protest immigrant childern on the day of protest on Va. bridges but be complicit to illegal aliens working illegally in what was once a very susstainable construction industry and call it ” returning to free market priniciples ” . TOTAL Bull Crap being served to Virginian Employers by Republicans and Va. TEA Party , it is obvious these are the Americans that don’t want to work. http://watchdog.org/202012/subcontractors-shadow-economy-
Senator Bill DeSteph can assist you on how to subcontract to illegal aliens in groups as building contractors.
Hey how about rolling up your sleaves ditch those clubs and get your A$$ to work , follow Terry MaCuliffe’s example Employee Misclassification Task Force .
To scared to discuss what they are finding in 2 years , what McDonell and Cuccinelli were hiding for 4 years.
Yes, I say with these facts the Va. TEA Parties are a cohesive lie.
The rule of law is not at the top on their list. Money , Money , Money , posers.
IMHO, as far as the Tea Party goes, I disassociated myself with them when they put the racist NAACP, who supports cop killers, on a pedestal, and couldn’t wait to kiss their a$$, and at the same time, banned an organization who dared to report on documented black on white violent crime,,that has been censored by the media, including the frauds at Fox News, for years. Moreover, most of them have been co-opted by the establishment. – good bye and get lost.
As a longtime “movement” conservative and original TP guy (and on Cruz’s VA team), I never knew that stripping American industry and wealth out of the country, lowering wages through mass immigration, removing border enforcement, and on and on, are conservative principles.
As a very concerned conservative, I think we need a nationwide discussion; who are we? What do we really believe? How do we protect our constitutional system and the Bill of Rights in a world where our national authority is being diluted and merged into an international system? How do we defend ourselves in such a world if we’ve stripped our manufacturing down to the point we can’t even make a TV?
Even beyond trade and trade agreement, America is an open door to the world. Fine. But go try and open a business in China, Mexico and the list is endless. Try to buy a house in Mexico as a friend of mine was just trying to do. The roadblocks are endless. The corruption is pervasive.
This doesn’t mean we need to get into a tariff war; but it does mean that that the time has come when we have to be concerned with our national self-interest before and above any other interest. That is why we have a constitution.
And another question for this author is foisting the world’s poverty onto US taxpayers via amnesties, de facto amnesties, catch and release programs, and accepting refugees as fast as the third world can spit them out, ARE THESE conservative principles?
Good for you, SJ. I am tired of these gutless fools who cannot see the 4Ds written on the wall. Diversity, Dependence, and Debt, and Dictatorship.
Let’s ask this shall we?
HAS THE GOP (ESTABLISHMENT’S) SUPPORT OF OPEN BORDERS ENDED CONSERVATISM IN OUR LIFETIME?
There… fixed this article.
Nativism… this author is against nativism? Listen up fool…
At this point thanks to your support of let’s say Teddy Kennedy’s Multiculturalism…
One in five people in America is foreign with little English skills.
Are You COMPLETELY THAT STUPID not to see that this is ushering in a century of Democrat rule? Let me ask you genius… name me ONE Democrat that doesn’t support open borders, amnesties, massive legal and illegal immigration?
Let’s see… immigrants when polled, support “a big government that helps people” by the tune of 3 to 1. And we are importing poverty… in your dreams, these are future Tea Party members right?
So guys like you with your schmaltzy crap about we are a nation of immigrants ARE:
Foisting poverty on US Taxpayers AND ensuring extremely LEFT wing Democrats control via demographics for the rest of your stupid life.
“the illegal targeting of innocent civilians overseas” Nice for you to worry about those overseas instead of the millions of Americans that have been robbed here at home.
My observation is the majority of Tea Party politicians have betrayed us, very few have remained loyal and true. The candidates sucker those hungry for the Constitution w/sweet talk, and the Tea Parties fall for them hook, line, and sinker and pay for their ticket to Washington. The candidates aren’t vetted, and/or once they get to Washington they turn for money or power.
For all the Cruz lovers, he is one of “them”, he wasn’t vetted, a Tea Party Darling endorsed by another Tea Party Darling, and YAY! Cruz beat out the incumbent! Let’s make him POTUS because he has won cases in front of SCOTUS. The man is yet another lawyer, and career politician that has managed ZERO and is an Elitist. He hasn’t even completed a full term as Senator and he is qualified to be POTUS?
Anyway, so what is the point of having a Tea Party if the candidates are useless? Remember it was the “conservatives” that caved to every last thing Obama wanted while holding the purse. Why shouldn’t people go for something out of the box? I am done w/the Tea Party and Conservatives, they had their chance and blew it.
You seem to want to put too many labels on things, peoples, and their beliefs. It’s as if you like to characterize them and see things binary.
Your pro-Cruz/anti-Trump bias comes through loud and clear.
I do not accept your premises. You can’t pidgeonhole me.
LOL I never thought I’d see the day when I would be labeled, “Progressive”!
Wrap your head around this: I consider myself a grassroots, Constitutional Conservative, with some libertarian leanings. And I’m a Trump gal.
Maybe you can just call me, “an American”; there are many millions of us out there. #MakeAmericaGreatAgain
You are correct – I don’t like Trump. I don’t like what he stands for. I don’t like his Teddy Roosevelt progressivism or his Herbert Hoover populism. I don’t like what I perceive to be a campaign of lies and false promises. I am angry that so many people who think of themselves as conservative would support a man who has done everything in his power to stop our movement over the last thirty years. In fact, it infuriates me.
That said, if he wins, I’ll fight beside you to ensure that he defeats Hillary. I’ve never bought into the #NEVERTRUMP nonsense and I do not condone Cruz-supporters who, if their guy doesn’t win, refuse to vote for the nominee. How upset would we be if Cruz gets to 1237 first and all the Trump people stayed home?
But understand that words do have historical meanings, Connie – I’m not calling you a progressive, as in Barack Obama, or a populist as in Bernie Sanders. I am specifically referring to its historical movements of Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Herbert Hoover.
The tea party expired when AFP and Freedom Works Koch heads didn’t need them any longer. The grass roots movement sold its soul to the Money Changers, who co-opted the message for gold. Trump inherited the survivors.
What message was specifically co-opted, using what language? I’m curious to learn specifics.
The Koch boys want amnesties. When you start talking about walls and controlling immigration, that is where they start to get all fuzzy about the monster they created in funding the tea party.
The TEA Party’s were fine before AFP AND FW, during their involvement, and are fine now. The fundamental principles are still there, or were until recently. Sometimes TEA Party’s forget where they can be most effective (local & state government) but that’s my only criticism.
Exactly. The TP was fine until big money got involved. Then the TP became just another shill, another candidate sucking off the elite.
There are many diverse opinions in our tea party as there were candidates this year and every year there has been an election. Yet we are still together and still working to education the populace. BTW, the tea party is dead…….didn’t you hear?
I will leave for others to puzzle out why you seem to juxtapose the Tea Party and populist movements as some type of opposing forces. The Tea Party is a populist movement in the clearest definition of the concept. I believe your intellectual confusion is in creating a list of political policy positions and assigning them by your definition to a specific mass movement concept. The one’s you don’t care for go to category A (the Trump phenomena) the one’s you support go to category B (the Tea Party). Therefore if category A is defined as populist it must be bad. I’m not sure this argument would even qualify as a strawman.
As an aside constitutionalists have nothing to do with any of this questionable false analogy and its association with specific policy positions. Constitutionalism and it’s adherents are most often associated with the political theories of John Locke and the founders of the American republic and believe that government can and should be legally limited in its powers, legitimacy and its authority to the textual basis of the founding documents and foremost that embodied in the US Constitution.
What protectionism or free trade (to use one of your examples) has to do with that as a policy position is not just unclear, it is a misunderstanding of the term itself. A constitutionalist might well support either free trade or protectionist tariffs as long as they adhere to constitutional strictures in so doing. In point of fact both these positions have been held by famous constitutionalists over our nation’s history (e.g. Daniel Webster-free trader vs Alexander Hamilton- protectionist tariffs). You may have a point to be made but I believe you missed it by a considerable margin with this article.
Steven: There’s lots of tea party groups right here in VA. Did you interview/contact any of them? I’m generally not a fan of supposition when original sources are so readily available.
I’ll share more thoughts on this when I have a bock of time to write a response.
Ok, here’s more.
Sure, there are tea party supporters who support Trump, just like there are Trump supporters across nearly any sample of the population. But I will share with you at a statewide summit meeting (a few meetings ago) of Tea Party groups across VA that a verbal poll was conducted from the podium….and the room was 90-95% for Ted Cruz. I’m not sure how its being determined that >50% of tea party people support Trump, because that is not my experience…not even close.
No, I work with many tea party folks on a weekly basis, and many of us still hold the same values and demand the same traits in our candidates…to ensure they align with tea party principles. Perhaps where tea party organizations may go off the rails is when they endorse candidates, generally. When you endorse, you necessarily alienate those who don’t agree with you….and there’s little to be gained by that endorsement. Richmond Tea Party for example, does not endorse candidates as a general rule. Certainly we can see how volatile this election is, so there’s no need to divide brothers and sisters.
As for motivation to support Trump…I heard everything from “burn it all down” to “we just want a business man to right the economy/debt”. Also folks are (justifiably) incensed over the lack of following the law on immigration. TP folks are generally pro-law, so having scofflaws come into the country rubs folks the wrong way. And it should!
I am discouraged however, that there are some TP’ers that have shunned Ted Cruz in favor of Trump. To me, Trump represents much of what I have fought against for the last 7 years. But while concerning, I can also understand the motivation. I disagree strongly, but understand it.
I think that more people need to engage with TP folks to learn first-hand what’s going on. Its also less than helpful to observe your local tea party group’s behavior and then extrapolate across all TP groups. The various group vary greatly on mission and tactics.
I welcome more discussion.
Eric McGrane
Chairman, Richmond Tea Party
IT Director, Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation
Voter, Does Not Support Donald Trump
(Disclaimer: My comments and opinions are my own and are not official statements representing the organizations to which I belong)
I’m a Tea Party gal who strongly supports Trump. Many of us Tea Party DO!
Hello? Mark Lloyd, former Chairman of VTPPF, is another Trump supporter.
There’s plenty of reasons we support Trump over Cruz.
And yet we’re STILL Tea Party.
Absolutely…I recognize that some TP folks support Trump….that is undeniable. Ain’t America great? 🙂
btw: I’ve spoken at many TEA Party’s in Virginia. I interact with people from far more than that through social media and through websites like The Bull Elephant. I’ve been involved in the TEA Party movement since 2008, to one degree or another. I love the TEA Party. (If the populists take it over, I’m just telling you, we’ll have problems).
(the polls say 35% – but my personal experience of the TEA Party’s I’ve been to, says 50% might be a soft number) – but I’ve never been to your TEA Party. I do know that they are all different and autonomous. I was asking the question and considering it. I wasn’t necessarily saying that it is a certainty.
Our Tea Party group in Stafford went the way of the dinosaur. Without lots of money, a cohesive doctrine, and an inspiring visionary, movements fizzle. Trump ain’t that visionary, but he is at least not more of the same old conservative habla mucho pero no hace nada routine.
Tea Party groups need lifeblood to survive. That lifeblood is volunteers and donations. Many of us have done this for years and years now, and it can essentially be a second job. And the media has done a fantastic job of sullying the tea party name. Its rough to sustain the kind of energy required to operate a volunteer activist group, so I’m not surprised that some groups are fading/failing. If “righty” orgs got the same kind of grant money to fund operations as did leftist orgs, perhaps this wouldn’t be so.
Eric – you hit the hammer on the nail. The problem is righty groups do not get the money, with the exception of AFP. There are simply too few sugar daddies on the right.
The truth is, I am seeing this in my own TP and other local TP’s, they are losing members and board members even complete loss of groups… the Trump vs Cruz is splitting the Tea Party.
Its not JUST Trump and Cruz…folks are just exhausted after years of fighting. Supporters are still with us…I just recommend that TP groups stay out of the endorsement business.
Hear, hear!
Exhausted yes, and here is where the real troops are tested which is why trumps supporters are exposed for who they are… The week!
Don’t worry, we got it from here like true soldiers.
Wise suggestion.