# What now for the Tea Party? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 9, 2012, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493 "2012-11-09T16:33:24Z")\ **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:** [November 9, 2012, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/1 "2012-11-09T16:33:24Z")
The Tea Party’s name was hardly mentioned this election cycle. Are they a spent force? Will they go third-party, or will they be an intra-GOP factor in 2014 like they were in 2010, or will they just fade away? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/2 "2012-11-09T16:37:05Z")
I’m rather hoping for a complete take-over of the GOP. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/3 "2012-11-09T16:37:16Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > The Tea Party’s name was hardly mentioned this election cycle. Are they a spent force? Will they go third-party, or will they be an intra-GOP factor in 2014 like they were in 2010, or will they just fade away? Half will stay to fight the RINO’s, half will storm out to try form a third party (which will rapidly turn into a 4th, 5th and 6th party) and in a stunningly defiant display of faith-based maths a third half will just condense into a black hole of apoplexy before imploding totally. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/4 "2012-11-09T16:37:18Z")
Best thing they could do for the GOP is to just fade away. The country has pretty soundly rejected their positions. They need to realize that from their perspective, a moderate Republican is pretty much the best they can hope for as a POTUS candidate next time around. Going hard right might lose the House in the mid-terms, and won’t retake the White House in 2016. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/5 "2012-11-09T16:40:46Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Best thing they could do for the GOP is to just fade away. The country has pretty soundly rejected their positions. They need to realize that from their perspective, a moderate Republican is pretty much the best they can hope for as a POTUS candidate next time around. Going hard right might lose the House in the mid-terms, and won’t retake the White House in 2016. I really hope this is the thing. I miss moderate Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/6 "2012-11-09T16:52:36Z")
I’d imagine they will keep doing their thing, given that they didn’t lose much at all of the House, which was their stronghold anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/7 "2012-11-09T16:59:15Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > I really hope this is the thing. I miss moderate Republicans. Same here. I would be nice to have two viable candidates to choose from, instead of one so-so candidate and a total embarrassment. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/8 "2012-11-09T17:00:42Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > I really hope this is the thing. I miss moderate Republicans. Me too. Unfortunately, there are a lot of Tea Partiers and they only get more frightened and angry by their losses. I’m expecting the civil war in the Republican party to ramp up and in fact, I’m cheering it on. People don’t think third parties can make it, but the fact is that in some parts of the country, it’s one party. So if we had; Democrats Republicans (center-right) Tea Party (far right) We might actually have two parties viable in places where there currently is only one. Democrats and Republicans in places like NY and CA, Republicans and Tea Party in places like Texas. And then the Tea Party would be allowed to run it’s course and struggle with it’s own relative impotence on the national level rather than hijacking the Republican party and warping it’s platform. Do I think that will happen? No. Would I like to see it? Most definitely. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/9 "2012-11-09T17:52:02Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Me too. > > Unfortunately, there are a lot of Tea Partiers and they only get more frightened and angry by their losses. I’m expecting the civil war in the Republican party to ramp up and in fact, I’m cheering it on. > > People don’t think third parties can make it, but the fact is that in some parts of the country, it’s one party. So if we had; > > Democrats > Republicans (center-right) > Tea Party (far right) > > We might actually have two parties viable in places where there currently is only one. Democrats and Republicans in places like NY and CA, Republicans and Tea Party in places like Texas. > > And then the Tea Party would be allowed to run it’s course and struggle with it’s own relative impotence on the national level rather than hijacking the Republican party and warping it’s platform. > > Do I think that will happen? No. Would I like to see it? Most definitely. Of course, that also applies if a left-progressive party emerges and absorbs the left of the Dems. Progressives v. Democrats might be the lineup in some places. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/10 "2012-11-09T18:01:52Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > I’d imagine they will keep doing their thing, given that they didn’t lose much at all of the House, which was their stronghold anyway. Yea, I agree. I can’t really see them backing-off much, through primaries and the '10 elections, they seem to have a pretty strong lock on the GOP House and state-elected gov’t posts and the RNC power-structure. Its pretty hard to even distinguish a GOP as separate from the tea-party any more. Moderates, or even independently minded Conservatives have largely either retired, been run out of the party or embraced the tea-party schtick. And they don’t really seem like the types to take the latest election as some sort of signal that they’re brand of Conservatism is an electoral loser. I suspect they’ll keep-on keeping on so long as the GOP holds the House, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/11 "2012-11-09T18:08:04Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > I’m expecting the civil war in the Republican party to ramp up and in fact, I’m cheering it on. Who would be on the other side of that Civil War? Charlie Crist and Susan Collins? I don’t see much of a non-teaparty chuck left in the GOP to do the fighting. It’d be less the Confederacy vs the Union and more All the Other States vs Delaware. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/12 "2012-11-09T18:21:26Z")
Sorry to triple post. I don’t think the GOP’s situation is as grim as that faced by Dems in the 80’s (which is probably another reason we won’t see a change in the GOP anytime soon). It was only two years ago they swept the House and State races, after all. But I thought [this article](http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/109864/why-the-gop-needs%E2%80%94-wont-get%E2%80%94its-own-bill-clinton) was worth sharing. Its by Ed Kilgore, who helped found the Democratic Leadership Council. Its partially intersting just for a history lesson for those of us too young to remember the 80’s, but he gives some pretty convincing reasons why he thinks a similar group arising in today’s GOP is pretty unlikely. So at least in the short-term, I think the GOP will remain the tea-party, and the tea-party will remain the GOP. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/13 "2012-11-09T18:36:26Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > People don’t think third parties can make it, but the fact is that in some parts of the country, it’s one party. So if we had; > > Democrats > Republicans (center-right) > Tea Party (far right) > > We might actually have two parties viable in places where there currently is only one. Democrats and Republicans in places like NY and CA, Republicans and Tea Party in places like Texas. Even in Texas, I’d think there are enough Democrats that if an independent Tea Party were moderately successful in pulling votes away from the Republicans, the Dems could win it. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/14 "2012-11-11T16:48:03Z")
[This](http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tea-party-20121111,0,4516315.story) is interesting: > [@](#): > > But for conservatives who identify with the tea party, one emotion seemed to dominate all others: a white-hot anger at the Republican establishment. Tea party supporters are angry at the GOP for embracing as its presidential nominee a “moderate” like Romney. For undermining “true conservative” candidates. And for “choosing to ignore” the conservative agenda. > > Wednesday, the political direct-mail pioneer Richard Viguerie gathered a group of disenchanted conservatives for a news conference in Washington. Calling Romney’s loss “the death rattle” of the GOP, Viguerie, chairman of [ConservativeHQ.com](http://ConservativeHQ.com), said, “The battle to take over the Republican Party begins today.” > > \ > > Some tea party activists, stunned by their losses, were not sure how to move forward. > > Cincinnati Tea Party President George Brunemann, an engineer, was still reeling Thursday from an election night that also saw Ohio’s Republican U.S. Senate candidate, Josh Mandel, lose to Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown. > > “I have been trying to come to terms with what the heck is going on,” Brunemann said. “The easy two-word answer for what happened Tuesday is: America died.” > > But he also said there was another casualty: “The words ‘tea party’ are dead. No doubt about that.” > > Although the small-government, fiscal-responsibility principles of the tea party will never go out of style, he said, critics of the movement had been successful in tarnishing it as racist. > > And the movement got no support from the top during the campaign, he said. > > “You never heard a single utterance of the words ‘tea party’ from Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan,” Brunemann said. “I believe the downfall of the Republicans this time was that they never gave credit to the tea party.” ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/15 "2012-11-11T17:01:33Z")
Go wackoes, loons and racists. By which I mean - America is with you, one last push guys. First the Republican Party and then the world. The Tea Party Reich will last 1000 years. Minimum. Trust me.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/16 "2012-11-11T17:05:37Z")
They should just go away. They’ve been co-opted and a joke. I never got the name in the first place. Tea taxes haven’t been an issue for almost 235 years. Try associating with something relevant today and call yourselves the **Tobacco Party**. But that would take growing a pair. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/17 "2012-11-11T17:32:52Z")
What now for the Tea Party? Last I heard, they were saying, “We’re late, we’re late - for a very important date!” and they were following some mad person with a strange hat. It might have been Karl Rove, but they were moving too fast to see for sure. One would think any Republican with a brain would finally realize that pandering to this fringe group of nutjobs was not the wisest idea they have ever had. Then again, Fox New keeps banging the drums and pretending they are mainstream America, so who knows…perhaps they will get new tin foil hats and lead the way for yet another group of idiots to run for local, state and national offices. Fine with me. Nothing like certifiable lunatics running for office to keep the late night talk shows filled with mirth and levity. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/18 "2012-11-11T17:45:03Z")
Depends who runs in 2016. If it’s two white guys, their reason for being ceases to exist, and presumably so will they. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/19 "2012-11-11T18:02:20Z")
**What now for the Tea Party?** Maybe it’s time for them to wake up and smell the coffee… ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493/20 "2012-11-11T20:28:05Z")
I think they would stay relevant if they stuck with their fiscal conservative roots and dropped the social conservative, ultra religious, racist platform they have embraced since the 2010 election. They actually always were ultra right ideologues calling for smaller government except in peoples bedrooms, but before 2010 they denied it and claimed to be only interested in fiscal conservatism. It was this transition that killed them, IMHO. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-now-for-the-tea-party/640493.md?page=2)