# What role will the Tea Party play in the 2014 midterms?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-will-the-tea-party-play-in-the-2014-midterms/679632>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [January 24, 2014, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-will-the-tea-party-play-in-the-2014-midterms/679632 "2014-01-24T17:24:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 5

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-will-the-tea-party-play-in-the-2014-midterms/679632/81 "2014-04-07T15:47:03Z")

</div>

> [@adaher](#):
>
> Paul knows how to be reasonable . . .

Not until he repudiates the “End The Fed!” crowd, he doesn’t.

> [@adaher](#):
>
> . . . and he makes an effort to expand his appeal beyond his libertarian base.

Maybe he tries, but the point of the article is that he appears to be completely inept at that. Doesn’t really understand the worldviews of other kinds of conservatives.

> [@adaher](#):
>
> He may be hawkish, but until he matures, he’d get us into wars without a plan just like GWB did. I can’t see Rand Paul doing that . . .

Yeah, well, apparently, in the TP’s eyes that’s a strike for Cruz and against Paul.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-will-the-tea-party-play-in-the-2014-midterms/679632/82 "2014-04-07T16:11:34Z")

</div>

I think that’s a lot of supposition. I don’t think much of the neocon crowd is in bed with the Tea Party.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-will-the-tea-party-play-in-the-2014-midterms/679632/83 "2014-04-07T17:03:29Z")

</div>

> [@adaher](#):
>
> I think that’s a lot of supposition. I don’t think much of the neocon crowd is in bed with the Tea Party.

Not the ideological neocons, no, but they never had any real mass base anyway, they were always a think-tank phenomenon. But [the emotional-warhawk impulse is alive and well in the TP](http://www.people-press.org/2011/10/07/strong-on-defense-and-israel-tough-on-china/), as it always was in Nixon’s “Silent Majority” from which the TP (much diminished in numbers, now) is through several stages descended.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-will-the-tea-party-play-in-the-2014-midterms/679632.md?page=4)