# Is the Tea Party "the Right's New Left"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 20, 2014, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307 "2014-01-20T21:06:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2014, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/1 "2014-01-20T21:06:00Z")
Found this interesting bit at the end of the RationalWiki page on the [New Left](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/New_Left): > [@](#): > > **The Tea Party: the right’s New Left?** > > The plunge of ideological movements into an ever-deeper irrationality at the far end of the horseshoe when they near intellectual exhaustion may be a recurring feature of American political life. The New Left emerged at the moment when American liberalism was sputtering to a halt in the face of the contradictions between a domestic policy of social and economic reform and a foreign policy of aerial bombardment and hawkishness. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party, the main vehicle of the American left, was tearing itself into two camps — minorities and liberals who supported civil rights, feminism, and other social reform movements, and Southern segregationists (who, until the '70s, viewed the Republicans as the party of the War of Northern Aggression) and working-class Northerners (who were socially conservative, but voted Democratic due to labor issues) who felt that these changes were destroying America’s moral foundation. > > Today, the same thing is happening in American politics… but on the other side of the aisle. The Tea Party movement has emerged at the moment when growing numbers of Americans realized there was a contradiction between the Christian values espoused by the Republican Party and the actual practice of a militarist foreign policy and a laissez-faire capitalism devoid of concern for human well-being — and indeed, a further contradiction between the hate spewed by the religious right towards the LGBT community, Muslims, and other minorities and what was actually preached by Jesus. > > Partly for this reason, some[21][22] have drawn comparisons between the Tea Party movement and the New Left. Dick Armey, one of the main figures behind the Tea Party, praised the methods of Saul Alinsky, the leading tactician of the New Left, and Alinsky’s _Rules for Radicals,_ the famous guidebook for left-wing activists and organizers, has become a right-wing bestseller, co-opted by the Tea Party in the form of _Rules for Radical Conservatives_. The Tea Party, like the New Left, has a penchant for shock value, street theater[23], marches, and rallies in order to bring attention to the movement. Anti-science denialism infects both movements – the New Left had an irrational fear of nuclear power and industry, while many Tea Party supporters harbor a similar distrust of stem cell research, evolution, and the idea that global warming is man-made. A few especially radical New Leftists talked about going “back to the land” to escape the corruption of modern society; likewise, radical teabaggers talk about “going Galt” or becoming survivalists to escape from big government. Some[24] have even compared Glenn Beck to Abbie Hoffman. > > At their core, however, both believe in the fundamental purity and virtue of individual people, and that evil is introduced from above, by corrupt authority and elites – Third-World-destroying warmongers and thieving capitalists for the New Left, and socialist bureaucrats and Hollywood elitists for the Tea Party. Both groups dismiss the prior 30 years of liberal (then) or conservative (now) government as failing to meet standards of ideological purity. The New Left thought that the Democratic Party under Presidents Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Johnson were all corporate sellouts and warmongers who were upholding the decadent capitalist system, while to the Tea Party, the Republican Party under Bush, Nixon, and even (to some) Reagan, the man they once revered as a conservative icon, were nothing more than deficit-spending socialists. Most importantly, both the New Left and the Tea Party viewed “the establishment” as the enemy, wanted to return power to “the people”, and start a revolution. > > If the Tea Party is a modern-day New Left, then judging by history, this has foreboding consequences for the right, and very welcome consequences for the left. In the late '60s, while the left was spinning into such moonbattery and radicalism as the Weather Underground, the LaRouche movement, and various corporate-imperialist conspiracy theories, conservative intellectuals like William F. Buckley Jr. and Russell Kirk were offering a sensible-sounding alternative to the crumbling New Deal consensus, while simultaneously purging the right of fringe groups like the John Birch Society and the hardcore white supremacists and anti-Semites. Cue the triumphant election of Ronald Reagan. > > Today, however, the conservative movement has moved far to the right in the name of ideological purity. Tax protesters and assorted denialism and conspiracy theories (including birthers and the militia movement) are all gaining sympathy, while Glenn Beck and Joseph Farah have become trusted names in news and commentary. Liberals, meanwhile, are increasingly dismissive of the rantings of Al Sharpton, the hard greens (while simultaneously seizing from them the banner of environmentalism), and 9/11 conspiracy theorists, while more moderate, center-left leaders are becoming the public face of progressivism. If the Tea Party shoots itself in the foot the way the New Left did, then sane political thought may prevail in the years to come. > > The biggest difference between the New Left and Tea Party, however, is that the New Left was alienated by most of the Democratic Party (even the liberal faction), who felt they were too extreme. The Tea Party, on the other hand, had been largely embraced by the Republican Party in 2010 and, because of this, the Tea Party has managed to be far more influential and powerful among policymakers than the New Left _ever_ was. And another difference is that the Tea Party [has some corporate money behind it](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Tea_Party#Astroturf_organisation). I doubt the New Left ever did. But another important difference is that the New Left was mostly a movement of the young. The TP has, shall we say, an impending sell-by date. In the [2011 Pew Political Typology,](http://www.people-press.org/2011/05/04/beyond-red-vs-blue-the-political-typology/) the TP’s base is the Staunch Conservatives, demographically the oldest of the typology groups, “61% ages 50 and older.” But are the similarities persuasive, WRT forecasting the TP’s prospects and staying power? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2014, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/2 "2014-01-20T23:04:43Z")
I think if you used the word ‘left’ to describe them in any way, shape or form, most of them would have an aneurysm. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2014, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/3 "2014-01-20T23:16:06Z")
Tempting… ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/4 "2014-01-21T00:19:57Z")
I live in Middle Tennessee, hard-core Tea Farty Country. Bigots, Xenophobes, Ignoramuses & Raving Paranoids, every single one of em. The whole idea is 100% weapons-grade Boloney-ium. Forget it. It don’t even come close to passing the sniff test. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/5 "2014-01-21T00:40:38Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > I live in Middle Tennessee, hard-core Tea Farty Country. > > Bigots, Xenophobes, Ignoramuses & Raving Paranoids, every single one of em. > > The whole idea is 100% weapons-grade Boloney-ium. > > Forget it. It don’t even come close to passing the sniff test. Pay attention to the bit about [“the far end of the horseshoe.”](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/6 "2014-01-21T00:51:43Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > The whole idea is 100% weapons-grade Boloney-ium. Which idea, specifically, are you referring to? ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/7 "2014-01-21T00:52:14Z")
Ideally. If millennials, single women and non-whites keep their disdain for the contemporary GOP as a lifelong bias then yeah you are looking at 30 years of center left political rule. But who knows if that’ll happen. The tea party will continue to have massive influence since they are strong in areas where the real election is the primary since the general is largely a foregone conclusion (although the tea party does swing a lot of GOP safe senate seats into the dem category). I am amazed at how well organized the tea party is. For a group that it only about 10% of the electorate and only came about in 2009 they have had a massive influence in politics and the collective consciousness. OWS was a joke compared to the tea party. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/8 "2014-01-21T01:06:46Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > I think if you used the word ‘left’ to describe them in any way, shape or form, most of them would have an aneurysm. I’d settle for seeing the look on Glenn Beck’s face when he finds out his fans have been comparing him favorably to Abbie Hoffman. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/9 "2014-01-21T01:23:42Z")
The comparison is lazy and simplistic, lacking any long-term historical perspective, as though political change were nothing more than a timeless, evenly balanced pendulum swinging back and forth in a vacuum. It pretty much ignores the conditions that have led to rise of each of these “movements.” ---
**Author:** ![BrightNShiny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@BrightNShiny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrightNShiny)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/10 "2014-01-21T01:28:17Z")
> [@](#): > > the New Left had an irrational fear of nuclear power and industry I had to roll my eyes at this part. Let’s see. We’ve had Fukishama, a fertilizer plant explosion that leveled a town in Texas, the BP oil spill, and a coal-processing spill that cut off the water supply to 300K people. While I think these problems are solvable through regulation and enforcement, it’s hardly irrational to be afeared of nuclear power and industry. It’s not like they haven’t given people cause to be afraid. But, back to the OP. The New Left never had any significant power in the Democratic Party (with perhaps the exception of the SDS, and even the cited article notes that it never amount to any policy changes). But, even though the never had any significant power, the entire Democratic Party has been portrayed as inexorably intertwined with them for the past 50 years. Whereas, with the Tea Party, lots of people like to believe that they are distinct from the Republican Party, when, in fact, they are completely intertwined with the Republicans. So, in that respect, I’d say they’re the complete opposite of the New Left. They’re certainly better at marketing. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/11 "2014-01-21T02:02:39Z")
Regardless of whether the analysis is lazy or simplistic, the fact remains that Republicans have embraced – and are identified with – the lunacy of the Tea Party to an extent completely unlike the relative alienation of the New Left by the Democrats, leading to this key point in the article: “If the Tea Party is a modern-day New Left, then judging by history, this has foreboding consequences for the right, and very welcome consequences for the left.” Thanks to the Tea Party, Republicans seem to be increasingly identified by radical defining characteristics: denial of science, Creationist wingnuttery, hatred of government, misogynistic attitudes to womens’ rights, and worship of corporate greed. Hendrik Hertzberg over at the New Yorker recently [posted this quote](http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/hendrikhertzberg/2012/05/mann-and-ornstein.html#entry-more) from Thomas E. Mann of the Brookings Institution and Norman J. Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute: > [@](#): > > We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party. > > The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/12 "2014-01-21T02:06:00Z")
I prefer to think of the Tea Party movement as political activism for active seniors. It’s good, gets them out of the house. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/13 "2014-01-21T23:35:10Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Pay attention to the bit about [“the far end of the horseshoe.”](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory) \ Nose-blowing rubbish. These dimwits picketed the local Buddhists, giving the same excuses they did when they tried to shut down the local Mosque. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/14 "2014-01-21T23:36:15Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Which idea, specifically, are you referring to? The whole, goofy, comparison, please and thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/15 "2014-01-22T01:16:57Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > The whole, goofy, comparison, please and thank you. Let me try it this way: What comparison do you think the OP is making? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/16 "2014-01-22T06:05:47Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > The whole, goofy, comparison, please and thank you. Errmm, **Bosda,** with all due respect . . . You wouldn’t happen to have any personal or emotional or historical connection with the old New Left . . . would you? ---
**Author:** ![Farin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e79b87/32.png) [@Farin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farin)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/17 "2014-01-22T13:16:42Z")
The Tea Party is certainly as disruptive as the New Left was. And while there may be tactics they adopt from them, I think most of their sway comes from a reaction to leftist policies that some, especially the rich, see as “going too far.” If you look historically, it’s rise came during the end of GB Sr and during the beginning of Clinton’s reign. The wins from 92 and forward slowly emboldened the purist portions of the R party. Once funding and public sentiment aligned with their aims, they took off. They rode in on a sentiment of “Congress is being a bunch of idiots.” that came after the passage of the ACA. Since they’ve been utterly ineffective at making the law either better or removing it entirely, I’m not sure that the Tea Party will last long. If it does it will, hopefully, be relegated to the sidelines like much of the New Left was. Sadly, it will probably take 20+ years like the New Left did. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/18 "2014-01-22T17:00:26Z")
The article is wrong about the New Left and the tea party. The New Left was a reaction to the Kruschev’s admissions about the crimes of Stalin. The younger socialists wanted to distance themselves from the older generation of leftists in America who they felt had been tainted by their taking orders from Stalin. They rejected the old socialist institutions and wanted to start a new revolutionary movement that had its heros as Castro, Mao, and Ho Chi Minh instead of the Bolsheviks. They were bankrolled by rich individuals, mostly young heirs, and not by the USSR as the old left had been. It had a huge role in the antiwar movement, but other than that it was not politically succesful. Its largest influence has been in academia where many of its adherents went after the movement fizzled. The tea party is a reaction to the financial crisis and the laws passed in reaction to it. The original tea party meetings were in reaction to a proposal to pay mortagages of delinquent borrowers. The political reaction to the financial crisis was a massive increase in the borrowing and spending of government and many bailouts. The tea party was a reaction against that sudden change. It has morphed into an alternate source of power and money for conservative candidates and its primary impact has been to motivate more establishment Republicans not to become too moderate or risk being primaried. ---
**Author:** ![nate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nate/32/13085_2.png) [@nate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nate)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/19 "2014-01-22T17:44:42Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > The article is wrong about the New Left and the tea party. The New Left was a reaction to the Kruschev’s admissions about the crimes of Stalin. The younger socialists wanted to distance themselves from the older generation of leftists in America who they felt had been tainted by their taking orders from Stalin. They rejected the old socialist institutions and wanted to start a new revolutionary movement that had its heros as Castro, Mao, and Ho Chi Minh instead of the Bolsheviks. They were bankrolled by rich individuals, mostly young heirs, and not by the USSR as the old left had been. It had a huge role in the antiwar movement, but other than that it was not politically succesful. Its largest influence has been in academia where many of its adherents went after the movement fizzled. > **The tea party is a reaction to the financial crisis and the laws passed in reaction to it.** The original tea party meetings were in reaction to a proposal to pay mortagages of delinquent borrowers. The political reaction to the financial crisis was a massive increase in the borrowing and spending of government and many bailouts. The tea party was a reaction against that sudden change. It has morphed into an alternate source of power and money for conservative candidates and its primary impact has been to motivate more establishment Republicans not to become too moderate or risk being primaried. That’s not how I remember it. It sprung up in the national media around the same time Obama was inaugurated ([http://www.google.com/trends/explore#cat=0-16&q=tea%20party&geo=US&cmpt=q](http://www.google.com/trends/explore#cat=0-16&q=tea%20party&geo=US&cmpt=q)) with the main message being “taxed enough already” flanked by complaints about the deficit and how it was Obama’s fault. This led into massive media coverage of those crazy town hall meetings that summer. It is only in the past couple years that tea partiers try to link it to the pre-Obama days. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307/20 "2014-01-22T18:46:01Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > They were bankrolled by rich individuals, mostly young heirs . . . Cite? > [@puddleglum](#): > > Its largest influence has been in academia where many of its adherents went after the movement fizzled. Cite? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-tea-party-the-rights-new-left/679307.md?page=2)