When I think of the most prominent leaders of the Tea Party movement, the names that spring to mind are Sarah Palin, Michele Bachman, and Christine O’Donnel. I find it interesting that all three are women. I find this particularly surprising given the fact that most members of the Tea party seem to be paleo-conservatives, a group not known for their egalitarian beliefs. Below I have indicated a few theories as to how this came about and I would be interested in the Doper’s view of these, or any other theories they have
1)My entire premise is fault and these three represent don’t the most prominent tea partiers.
It’s just chance (1 chance in 8 for the top three being women) or confirmation bias on my part (I just notice the women more for some reason).
There is no clear spokesperson for the movement so the media picks the most physically attractive candidates.
Something about the nature of conservative women’s viewpoints are attractive to the media/population more so than male conservative views.
Having a female face on the right wing rhetoric allows it to appeal to a broader by appealing to both the female population and the paleo-conservative male population.
I am wrong about the sexist nature of paleo-conservatives or the paleo-conservative nature of the tea party, and this is proof of the egalitarian nature of the tea party.
I lean in the direction of 3 or 5, but I would also consider 4 if it could be shown what it is about being of being a female conservative that leads to dingbattery.
Otherwise highly patriarchal groups and nations have fairly often had female leaders (various Queens of England come to mind). Exceptions are made for the top leaders; they can get away with all sorts of things that the common person can’t, even being a woman.
A big part of the conservative movement, especially in the 80s and 90s, built up from organization at the local level in church groups and county party meetings. That sort of organization at that level is usually the province of stay-at-home wives, mostly those in the stage between “stay at home mom” and “old church lady”.
I’ve also noticed that small-town business organizations (Rotary, Chamber of Commerce, etc.) tend to have local businesswomen overrepresented in their leadership. (That is, there are four women out of 30 people at the meeting, but two of them are officers.) That might be because they put more value on working together, or because they feel more of a need to prove themselves.
So it’s not too unusual to see conservative women as leaders at the lower level. It just took a while for that to percolate up to the top.
Also, heading up the Tea Party involves saying some mean, assholish things. (Some would say that they need to be said.) If you’re a woman that makes you “tough”, but if you’re a man it usually just makes you an asshole.
The Tea Party movement was not comprised of paleo-conservatives but rather was a populist backlash against the financial bailouts and stimulus spending. Populist movements are open to non-traditional leadership types because they are reaction against the failures of traditional leadership.
Part of the appeal of these women was the hatred that conventional power structures had for them. Part of the hatred was due to the feelings that they were traitors towards their sex and the zest which many women engage in personal destruction. Their feminity thus contributed toward the hate directed toward them and that hate gave them authenticity which is very appealing to populists who have a distrust of traditional politicians.
None of those women are leaders. I can see where you might think Palin is, but O’Donnell? Not even close. Palin and Bachman jumped on the TP bandwagon, but they don’t lead it. It’s pretty amorphous, and doesn’t really have any clearly defined leaders. Ron and Rand Paul is every bit “leaders” any of those women.
There have been a couple of polls that showed women constituting a majority of the Tea Party.
One primary reason that I believe many members would give for the creation of the Tea Party was to challenge existing power structures on the right, so it’s perhaps not surprising that its own leadership does not fit a traditional mold. (ETA: as puddleglum notes).
I think O’Donnell is much more of a media creation than a leader of the movement, and I think Jim DeMint is as much of a leader of it as Palin or Bachmann.
Seconded. The people the OP named are absolutely not “the top three,” and people who are trying to ride Tea Party-related trends should not be confused with leaders of the group. O’Donnell was a candidate backed by the Tea Party - and so was Sharron Angle - but they don’t lead anybody. O’Donnell had been a Senate candidate before, too. Based on news coverage it does seem like there are a significant number of women in local leadership positions with the Tea Party. I think that’s partly because a lot of Tea Partiers have not been politically active in the past, and that describes plenty of women.
Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have used the word leaders. I meant leaders in terms of being the public face of the tea party; that is if the random person on the street was asked to name 5 tea party members, who would they come up with. Most of the people that come to my mind are women, with the exception of Rand Paul. I am aware of a number of other men, (such as horse porn guy) but their names don’t spring to mind.
DeMint should definitely be included as a leader, at least in the Senate. I understand your reasoning, but like I said, a lot of politicians are trying to ride the Tea Party wave - that doesn’t make them leaders. It’s the opposite, actually. Some of them are very much trying to assuage TP types even though they are not really of them. Mitch McConnell comes to mind.
I don’t know much about American politics, but is it possible that members of the Tea Party get accused of sexism often, but don’t see themselves (or want to see themselves) that way? It could be a conscious or subconscious ‘look, we’re not sexist, we have women in high places’ kind of thing, and just generally wanting to avoid looking like a bunch of old white dudes.*
*Spoken without really knowing much about the demographic makeup of the Tea Party.
Who says Sarah Palin and Christine O’Donnell are “the leaders” of the Tea Party?
They’re politicians who have some ties to and some supporters among the Tea Partiers. But that’s as far as it goes. NOBODY on the Right is taking marching orders from any of the women the OP cites.
Christine O’Donnell was a Tea Partier who ran for the Senate and lost badly. In a state like Delaware, she probably never had a prayer of being competitive, let alone winning. And yet, this one candidate got FAR more media attention than any of the Tea Partiers who were winning!
Agreed. I thought the “movement” was essentially astroturf, and the real leaders are shadowy guys in suits. These women have become prominent for the same reason many newsreaders are now well spoken females. Some guys in suits found they rated well.
That sometimes happen when a candidate runs a hilariously inept campaign. Obama had to deny he was Kenyan, but he even never had to deny he was a warlock. Alvin Greene got his share of national attention, too, for the same reason O’Donnell did.
Ron Paul, Rand Paul, Jim DeMint, Mike Pence. They are all considered ‘leaders’ in the tea party movement too. If not leaders, then at least individuals who have something to offer the movement.
I think Bachmann and Palin are picked because they are moderately attractive, which distracts from some of the social darwinist vibe of tea party policy. That is just a guess on my part. But wealthy, obese white men with a string of bad personal relationships (Gingrich, Limbaugh) are the unspoken representation of what is considered unpalatable about certain kinds of conservatism, like the tea party is just a tool to justify gluttony or selfishness. Women and minorities probably do not have that same effect, tea party values would seem more like authentic values and less an attempt to justify coarse and base urges. If there were minorities in the tea party (aside from Marco Rubio) the tea party would put them out front too.
Until she called attention to herself with demanding an apology to her hubby from Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas’s wife was a big well paid organizer for a Tea Bagger organization.
I’m not even sure they knew sexism existed outside of 1970 until they decided that’s why people were hating on Sarah Palin. I think the OP is mostly #5 with a sprinkling of the rest. As others have pointed out, these women may be who many people associate with the Tea Party but aren’t necessarily wielding any power.