Previously, Boycott Watch wrote how
the Tea Party is
planning its own demise via rejoining the Republicans, but political events
have changed which makes the Tea Party movement interesting if you remove the
politics and view it strictly from a consumer standpoint. After all,
politicians are supposed to be serving the public, in a sense being
governments' consumer advocates, yet both major partiers generally fail in that
role.
When Boycott Watch wrote about the Tea Party,
we wrote that
their boycott campaign would result in their demise because groups which
declare one-day boycotts vanish into the dustbowls of history. We stand by that
February, 2010 article, but one thing revitalized their movement - the Obama
health care bill. Since that time, the Tea Party has grown because many people
felt the Republicans failed to stop it, thus the Tea Party had a resurgence by
people who felt neither party was listening to them.
While that fueled enough anger to have people like Christine O'Donnell win
primary elections, the real fuel came from Republicans like Karl Rove who
criticized Tea Party candidates who won their primaries against establishment
Republican candidates, separating the Tea party from the mainstream
Republicans. By doing that, the Tea Party instantly became hot news in all of
the media, not just on Fox News. The fact that both Democrat and Republican
have been taking their time to specifically criticize the Tea Party is
unprecedented, and it shows both major parties fear the Tea Party. The problem
is the Tea Party is mainly comprised of the disgruntled swing voters both major
parties need to win a national election. Alienating potential voters is not
politically smart.
In his 1992 presidential
campaign, Ross Perot was generally hated by the media and the people, so both
mainstream political parties did not have to fight Perot because the media did
it for them. What we are seeing now is both major political parties taking time
to criticize Tea Party activists. The Republicans are more affected since Tea
Party candidates can split their votes. Still, fear exists on both sides,
indicating the voting consumers, a.k.a. the public, is not happy with the way
Washington is responding to their needs, or should that be not responding to
their needs.
The Tea Party is a populist rejection
of government officials, but not government itself as evidenced by the number
of incumbents who lost their primary bids. Both major political parties should
realize they need to pay attention to the Tea Party and other swing voters; the
problem is they usually only pay attention to swing voters in the election
season. The primary victory for the Tea Party is, therefore, standing up to
Washington and demanding year-round attention. The longer both major parties
reject Tea Party and other swing voters, the harder it will be for them to
maintain incumbents and therefore party stability.
Weeks after the primary, the Republicans have toned down their primary night
loss rhetoric and even embraced the Tea Party. RNC Chairman Michael Steele is
using GOP money to fund Tea Party candidates, thus bringing the Tea Party back
into the GOP tent. The Democrats, however, have rejected Tea Party voters
instead of trying to attract the disgruntled Republicans. Sure, there are
ideological differences, but splitting the Republican vote would have been in
their best interests and the Democrats failed to accomplish that. Perhaps this
explains why Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) calls herself an Independent in her
congressional reelection bid despite having a firm Democrat voting record in
Congress.
In the end, the Tea Party, which Steele
prevented from becoming an actual thirty party, will revert into the GOP camp,
but partly because the Democrats failed to encourage them to thrive when they
had the chance, thus not splitting the Republican vote in a key midterm
election. While the party in power usually loses power in midterm elections,
political pundits will inevitably claim the Democrats could have won had they
played their cards right, and from a consumer standpoint, the Democrats have
already failed to win by taking business away from their top competitor.
Politicians and parties sometimes forget elections are about the consumer
electorate. David struck and Goliath didn't pay attention. Just remember you
read it here a month prior. |
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