# When did the teaparty become a subset of the Republicans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 10, 2013, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921 "2013-10-10T21:21:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/1 "2013-10-10T21:21:13Z")
My memory could be off, but I recall during the first years of the teaparty’s astroturffing pundits and posters were vociferously claiming that the teaparty was some sort of third party, a political coalition made up of equal parts of Republicans and Democrats. Is that recollection correct? If so, when did they drop the pretence and recognize the TP as a wing of the Repbulcians (the collective ‘they’, including the politico-venture capitalists funding the turfbuilding campaign, Fox News and talk radio, real media/journalists, teaparty members, posters, etc.)? Other than rumblings about splitting from the Republicans, is there any large, non-astroturfed collection of voices still insisting the TP isn’t primarily aligned with the Republicans/against whatever it is Obama/the Democrats do? (If you absolutely must whine about my taking it for granted that the teaparty was astroturfed into existence and that Fox News/talk radio is wholly distinct from real media/journalists then consider that a poison pill that’s irrelevant to the thread and take it to the Pit.) ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/2 "2013-10-10T21:27:37Z")
Pretty much right out of the gates. Sure, there were some people who weren’t ultra-conservative Republicans in the mix, but I think most of them got converted, co-opted or drive off by the loons. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/3 "2013-10-10T21:36:19Z")
[This page has a good history of the Tea Party.](http://www.infoplease.com/us/government/tea-party-history.html) > [@](#): > > CNBC’s Rick Santelli is widely credited with launching the grassroots movement. While standing on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on February 19, 2009, he unleashed what can only be called a rant against the Obama Administration’s proposal to help homeowners facing foreclosure refinance their mortgages. > > “Do we really want to subsidize the losers’ mortgages?” he asked. “This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills?” He went on to suggest that he would organize a Chicago Tea Party in July, where capitalists would dump “some derivative securities into Lake Michigan.” The video of his tirade became a YouTube hit, and thus the movement was born. Within weeks, Tea Party protests were sprouting up all over the country. The Tea Party name, a clear reference to the American colonists’ dumping of tea into Boston Harbor to protest taxes imposed by King George, stands as an acronym as well: Taxed Enough Already. Republicans by definition are against Big Government, but the Tea faction is REALLLLLLY against it. I’d compare it to the Green Party on the left… you don’t see many Republicans joining the Greens, but you might see a lot of Democrats move that way. That said, even though they’re more or less a subset of the GOP - they also kind of hate typical Republicans nearly as much as they do Dems. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/4 "2013-10-10T21:47:53Z")
You’re right that at the very beginning some people claimed that the Tea Party was a true populist movement composed of dissidents from all sides. There may even have been some truth there, since the economic meltdown was producing protests everywhere and a lot of older Democrats were never going to identify with Occupy Wall Street. If there is a time when any pretense disappeared I’d say it was the 2010 elections. IIRC, the Tea Party wound up backing no Democrats. Checking on [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement), I see that’s accurate: > [@](#): > > In the 2010 midterm elections, The New York Times identified 138 candidates for Congress with significant Tea Party support, and reported that all of them were running as Republicans—of whom 129 were running for the House and 9 for the Senate. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/5 "2013-10-10T21:49:01Z")
The Republican Party pandered to the TPers as a cheap source of votes. What they got was worth what they paid for it. Crane ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/6 "2013-10-10T21:59:02Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > (If you absolutely must whine about my taking it for granted that the teaparty was astroturfed into existence and that Fox News/talk radio is wholly distinct from real media/journalists then consider that a poison pill that’s irrelevant to the thread and take it to the Pit.) The Tea Party was, in fact, astroturfed into existence. As I’ve pointed out on the board before: > [@What is the Tea Party movement, really?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-tea-party-movement-really/664271/46): > > The Tea Party formulation happened at least 6 months prior to Santelli’s (IMO scripted) rant. The whole “movement” was a well-financed and planned thing, not a grassroots movement as it’s backers would have the nation believe. > > Zack Christenson, a producer of conservative Milt Rosenburg’s radio show, registered the domain [ChicagoTeaParty.com](http://ChicagoTeaParty.com) in August 2008, for instance. As I asked in another thread: was he somehow psychic and just “knew” that a spontaneous grassroots movement with the same name (and that shared his own political goals and ideology) would appear soon afterward? > > :dubious: > > :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/7 "2013-10-10T22:10:59Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > [This page has a good history of the Tea Party.](http://www.infoplease.com/us/government/tea-party-history.html) Any page on tea party history that fails to at least mention the Koch brothers or Americans for Prosperity is tantamount to a history of the Bush presidency that fails to mention Karl Rove. So about a year and half of proclaimed independence? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/8 "2013-10-10T22:15:27Z")
I think it just appears that the Tea Party is a subset of the Republicans. In actuality, the Tea Party endorses candidates that it agrees with. They come overwhelmingly more from the Republicans than from the Democrats, so it appears that they are affiliated. I’m sure the Tea Party would be just as happy to embrace a Democrat who believed in their principals of limited government and fiscal responsibility. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/9 "2013-10-10T22:37:20Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > I think it just appears that the Tea Party is a subset of the Republicans. In actuality, the Tea Party endorses candidates that it agrees with. They come overwhelmingly more from the Republicans than from the Democrats, so it appears that they are affiliated. I’m sure the Tea Party would be just as happy to embrace a Democrat who believed in their principals of limited government and fiscal responsibility. How many Democrats have the Tea Party endorsed? Could you (or someone else) please list them for us? ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/10 "2013-10-10T22:44:11Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > The Tea Party name, a clear reference to the American colonists’ dumping of tea into Boston Harbor to protest taxes imposed by King George, stands as an acronym as well: Taxed Enough Already. The acronym part is nonsense, it’s a backronym that was tacked on later, well after the TP was formed/turfed. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/11 "2013-10-10T22:56:45Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > I’m sure the Tea Party would be just as happy to embrace a Democrat who believed in their principals of limited government and fiscal responsibility. And I’m sure they’d endorse any Democrat who would agree with the Tea Party members who have declared that Obama is the AntiChrist. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/12 "2013-10-10T23:06:45Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > My memory could be off, but I recall during the first years of the teaparty’s astroturffing pundits and posters were vociferously claiming that the teaparty was some sort of third party, a political coalition made up of equal parts of Republicans and Democrats. !!! Sure that wasn’t “Republicans and independents”? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/13 "2013-10-10T23:20:22Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > The Tea Party was, in fact, astroturfed into existence. As I’ve pointed out on the board before: > > > [@Snowboarder Bo](#): > > > > Zack Christenson, a producer of conservative Milt Rosenburg’s radio show, registered the domain [ChicagoTeaParty.com](http://ChicagoTeaParty.com) in August 2008, for instance. Which meshes with my estimation, that by 2008 some people/groups in the Right were already disillusioned with where the NeoCons had taken the GOP in the Bush years, which had already resulted in a Democratic Congress in 2006; and were upset with the effects of the by then ongoing housing crash and the then-imminent financial crisis and aware thatthose made it likely that a Democratic White House and Congress were impending; and that these factions, even before the conventions were adjourned, had already started looking for ways to start obstructing the new Democrat administration from day one, and to issue a challenge from the hard Right to make “establishment” Republicans pay. So they were ready to pounce on the large numbers of “Movement Conservatives” who came out of Nov. 2008 feeling the maistream GOP had failed them, by telling them _“Well, never mind that, it’s water under the bridge, it happened because we were not conservative enough. But look at the dire threat that’s in front of you right now, man!! Lost your job? Lost your house? Health Care Reform will make you lose your very freedom! And, war on Christmas.”_ That Santelli on the floor of the CME could be said to be channelling populist sentiment is a joke. He was channelling sentiment of his particular interest segment, who would prefer to let the weak perish so the survivors could scavenge the remains cheap. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/14 "2013-10-10T23:33:15Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > !!! Sure that wasn’t “Republicans and independents”? No, the original myth was their ranks were equally filled with (former) Republicans and Democrats with the core being independent voters. I think \*\*Tim R. Mortiss’s \*\*post kind of highlights the extent of the myth or what it’s evolved into. Like a lot of things that have mutated it’s kind a grotesque in a ‘look what happened to logic’ sort of way—kind of encapsulated in “I’m sure the Tea Party would be just as happy to embrace a Democrat who believed in their principals of limited government and fiscal responsibility.” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/15 "2013-10-11T00:49:03Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Tim R. Mortiss** : > > I’m sure the Tea Party would be just as happy to embrace a Democrat who believed in their principals of limited government and fiscal responsibility. Yes, but the Tea Party’s principles of limited government and fiscal responsibility are “none of either”. Since Democrats generally support both limited government and fiscal responsibility, it’s going to be quite hard to find any who agree with the Tea Party. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/16 "2013-10-11T00:56:30Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > I think it just appears that the Tea Party is a subset of the Republicans. In actuality, the Tea Party endorses candidates that it agrees with. They come overwhelmingly more from the Republicans than from the Democrats, so it appears that they are affiliated. I’m sure the Tea Party would be just as happy to embrace a Democrat who believed in their principals of limited government and fiscal responsibility. [This](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=704287) [is](http://www.salon.com/2013/10/06/tea_party_radicalism_is_misunderstood_meet_the_newest_right/) a better account of the TP’s principles. It is a movement of “local notables” trying to protect their power and privileges from federal interference. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/17 "2013-10-11T00:56:47Z")
A more complete history was reported months ago by the ones that look at the climate change contrarians, many of them are also Tea Partiers. Before the recent research there were already a lot of connections seen between the ones opposing the control of tobacco and the ones also opposing the control of global warming gas emissions. [http://climatecrocks.com/2012/01/25/tobacco-and-the-anti-science-movement-more-video/](http://climatecrocks.com/2012/01/25/tobacco-and-the-anti-science-movement-more-video/) Several think tanks, like the Marshall Institute and the Heartland Institute just modified their FUD playbook used for denying links with cancer and tobacco, changing some words in that book, they moved to prevent any regulation or taxation of CO2 emissions and other global warming gasses. As part of that change of focus, the financing also increased to groups that then morphed into the Tea Party of today. It was an effort financed in large part by Tobacco people and then Fossil fuel ones because Tea Partiers can be counted on pushing an agenda of no taxation and no regulations that “coincidentally” ends up protecting the fossil fuel industry. > **[TEA Party: Tobacco Everywhere Always](https://www.desmog.com/2013/02/11/tea-party-tobacco-everywhere-always/)** > > Climate change doubt is a key belief in the TEA Party, sparked by the Koch-related Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks. Big Tobacco was heavily involved from the 1980s onward, and by 1992 the “Tea Party” was already in play. Extensive new... > [@](#): > > Climate change doubt is a key belief in the TEA Party, sparked by the Koch-related Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks. Big Tobacco was heavily involved from the 1980s onward, and by 1992 the “Tea Party” was already in play. Extensive new research has unearthed the real history. > > “‘To quarterback behind the scenes, third-party efforts’: the tobacco industry and the Tea Party” by Amanda Fallin, Rachel Grana and Stanton A Glantz, was published online last week in BMJ Tobacco Control, a high-impact peer-reviewed journal. They write: > > ``` > "Rather than being a purely grassroots movement that spontaneously developed in 2009, the Tea Party has developed over time, in part through decades of work by the tobacco industry and other corporate interests." > > ``` > [@](#): > > The authors found an even more specific Burson-Marsteller proposal from 1992: > > > [@](#): > > > > ``` > > "Grounded in the theme of "The New American Tax Revolution" or The New Boston Tea Party," the campaign activity should take the form of citizens representing the widest constituency base mobilized with signage and other attention-drawing accoutrements such as lapel buttons, handouts, petitions and even costumes." > > > > ``` > > It took decades, but they got that, including the costumes. I’d guess few members of the TEA Party realize it was created to help the tobacco industry addict kids to behavior that will kill many, slowly. The hope now is that even Koch industries and others are realizing that just because the Tea Partiers opposed taxation and regulations, and they did help the bottom line of the corporations, those corporations are now distancing themselves from the current efforts of the Tea Partiers. Seems that the powerful are \*\*finally \*\*noticing that helping to elect stubborn people that based their no regulation and no taxes on anti-science and ignorance can become harmful to the bottom line in the long run. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/18 "2013-10-11T00:58:05Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Yes, but the Tea Party’s principles of limited government and fiscal responsibility are “none of either”. No, that’s the GOP as such, based on its in-power track record. The TP is something else – but not the something else **Tim R. Mortiss** thinks it is. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/19 "2013-10-11T01:27:18Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > The hope now is that even Koch industries and others are realizing that just because the Tea Partiers opposed taxation and regulations, and they did help the bottom line of the corporations, those corporations are now distancing themselves from the current efforts of the Tea Partiers. > > Seems that the powerful are \*\*finally \*\*noticing that helping to elect stubborn people that based their no regulation and no taxes on anti-science and ignorance can become harmful to the bottom line in the long run. [Tom Tomorrow nailed it in 2011.](http://thismodernworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/TMW2011-08-17colorlowres.jpg) ---
**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:** [October 11, 2013, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921/20 "2013-10-11T01:34:53Z")
I remember when the Tea party first came out, it was portrayed as bipartisan but then some polls came out showing 80-90% of tea partiers are either republicans or independents who lean republican (which is another way of saying they are so right wing the GOP isn’t far enough right for them). So it was likely hard to uphold the pretense with that kind of info. Which hasn’t stopped pretense in the past. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-teaparty-become-a-subset-of-the-republicans/670921.md?page=2)