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[PTTG??]

Has it occured to anyone else that the Tea Party might split the republican vote, taking away a small but important group of traditionally republican voters, much like how the green party and other liberal third parties split the democrat vote in 2000?

In fact, it is obvious that the Tea Party will never win- there's too many people with a grade-school education, even in the States- and since that's the case, the best thing a liberal-minded person can do is convince as many reactionaries as they can to vote Tea.

Of course, it's all moot if the republicans actually nominate Palin.

That said, I'm voting green because these democrats aren't nearly liberal enough.

[smigenboger]

No one suspected a sleeper agent would commit this much effort in a community before trying to advertise a tea shipping business.


You bring up a good point, Democrats already have a lead at the moment, so any rifts in the Republican group would force them to either be bi-partisan or fillibuster-y.

[Nikov]

Tea Party is not a political party. Its a loose political algamation of like-minded canidates, PACs, and speakers. Their canidates are not running on the ballot as 'Democrat, Republican, Tea Party'. They are competing (and winning quite often) in Republican primaries to go on the ballot as Republican canidates. Thus, districts that would vote in a Tea-Party endorsed canidate will do so on the Republican ballot, after winning the Republican majority in the primary. Thus your idea of votes being split between three voting blocks and Republicans losing because of it is, at best, wishful thinking.

Please actually know what you're talking about before you start a thread.

PS: Thank you for voting Green.

[Aqizzar]

What it does do instead is lard up Republican tickets with wingnut candidates who believe the Department of Education is unconstitutional, that people have a right to brandish guns at congressmen when legislature they don't think they like passes, and massive tax cuts for rich people will reduce the deficit.

On the one hand, it motivates a lot of screwballs to vote early and often.  But it could easily turn around towards election day, when a bunch of Democratic-potential-voters get scared into going to the polls.  It's going to be a fun election.

[Phmcw]

Don't underestimate the power of the stupid side son, the stupid is strong, the stupid side is pervasive, and the stupid side never doubt.
Right now, the power of the stupid is strong with the tea party. They endorse true republican value : ignorance, hatred and fear of the other. And they believe in what they do.

If poeple stay rational, then you're right : independent voters won't vote for obvious nutjobs. But it have been time when they have, and there will be times when they will.

(I wanted to write all this in yoda's speak but my grammar is bad enough as it is.)

Ps: If you do think stupid paranoid movement based on hatred and pointless nationalism can't win election, you haven't followed European politics these last years.

[Leafsnail]

The Tea Party would still end up shedding most of the moderate Republican support in the areas where they have Republican candidates, though.  It'd possibly encourage a few of the ultra right to vote, but they were hardly gonna vote for anyone else anyway.

[PTTG??]

...It's going to be a fun election.

Yep, especially here in California. I'm thinking of volunteering to work at the polls just to see the parade of hippies coming in to vote for the legalization bill.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I would think Tea Party supporters might vote Constitution rather than Republican, being the obvious reactionary party like Green is the obvious radical party.

In any case, the level of Tea Party reactionism seems to vary. I've seen pictures of their protests that suggest everything from "Obama go back to Africa!" to "Just slightly above moderate Republican". I don't see much chance of them spliting the Republican vote or getting a Constitution affiliated member in office.

^{_{Go Libertarian.}}

[Nikov]

What it does do instead is lard up Republican tickets with wingnut candidates who believe the Department of Education is unconstitutional, that people have a right to brandish guns at congressmen when legislature they don't think they like passes, and massive tax cuts for rich people will reduce the deficit.

On the one hand, it motivates a lot of screwballs to vote early and often.  But it could easily turn around towards election day, when a bunch of Democratic-potential-voters get scared into going to the polls.  It's going to be a fun election.

You bring so much reason and decorum to this debate that it shames me to post any retort.

[Aqizzar]

Damn straight.  I am dead serious, and I always make ever effort to bring across my dedication to the magnitude of the debate.

[Renault]

You have to admire that the Tea Party types really have brought a huge wave of enthusiasm for politics back into the culture, as opposed to the pretty apathetic indifference of the earlier years, ya know? In a way, they're sort of the conservative counterpart to the Obama wave of '08. So in that regard, they're mostly admirable.
Then again, I disagree with a number of their implied policies, and I feel theres a worrisome level of anti-intellectualism in their rhetoric. I hope that if they do end up taking power, they somewhat moderate their opinions.
And on a petty, personal level, Sarah Palin is sort of annoying. I wish she wasn't constantly accusing the city where I live of being some Communist enclave of deranged mutants.

[PTTG??]

That was a neat part of Fallout 3.

[nenjin]

The Tea Party is as much about mobilizing the Republican base as it is their stated goal of "throwing out all the career politicians." (As an aside, I love that term. As though the best politicians would be ones who are just doing it in their spare time, or that their own candidates with $500,000+ in campaign financing aren't trying to make a career of this.)

And they've been very successful at doing that so far, successful enough to win primaries. The reason incumbents are usually the presumptive nominee is because your average voter doesn't get motivated by primaries. Very politically minded people and party hacks care about primaries. So the Tea Party has managed to rally enough support to overcome the early bird voters. That's something. (Not much of something, considering the abysmal nationwide turn out for primaries.)

On the other hand, they've also had pretty good success in governor's races, so it's not purely activating the most-likely to care part of the base.

Democrats will have plenty of ammunition to at least give moderate Republicans pause in November for voting. It will be a test of loyalty to the Republican party, whether to vote principle or party label. My money is on party label. Republicans will vote Republican rather than handing the democrats their vote by not voting or voting 3rd party, I think.

So that means the Tea Party will ultimately have accomplished its goal, getting its brand of Republican in power. Given the general dissatisfaction with government right now on both sides of the aisle, I think the Dems stand to lose more than people assume. Those hoping for Tea Party Republicans to create schisms with conservatives in November underestimate Republican solidarity in an election year.

[Leafsnail]

Fair enough.  It's always quite impressive to see every single Republican senator vote in the same direction on an issue (that rarely seems to happen in Britain, even for fairly basic stuff).

And if they're throwing out career politicians... what is Sarah Palin?  I mean, didn't she quit her previous (political) job in order to focus more on being a national politician?

[Canalan]

Why am I posting here, stop now before die, ah...
The problem with American politics is that, as time goes on, the voters becomes increasingly polarized to either side of the political spectrum.  The Tea Party is just a herald of things to come.

And I'm a constitutionalist, so...