Has the Tea Party Eclipsed the Republican Establishment in the 2016 Presidential Elections? (original) (raw)
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The prevailing media narratives relating to the Tea Party have generally missed the mark by either portraying the movement as new and revolutionary or a cynical political creation of the GOP after its 2008 defeat. Nonetheless, it is necessary to find a satisfactory way in which to interpret the emergence of the Tea Party, its constituent parts, and its engagement with the US general population and the Republican Party organisational structures. We can reframe the discussion within the following question: is the Tea Party’s place within US politics, the American conservative movement, and the GOP better explained by revolution or evolution? With reference to the above criteria and by analysing both the historical and contemporary context, I intend to demonstrate that the Tea Party is neither truly revolutionary nor a pawn of the GOP, but instead reflects the ongoing development and evolution of the far-right in the US.
Much ink has been spilled to describe the emergence and likely influence of the Tea Party on the American political landscape. Pundits and journalists declared that the emergence of the Tea Party movement pushed the Republican Party to a more extreme ideological position, which is generally anti-Washington. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed the ideological positions taken by candidates in the 2008 and 2012 pre-Iowa caucus Republican presidential-primary debates. To establish the positions, we used the debate transcripts and a text-analytic technique that placed the candidates on a single dimension. Findings show that, overall, the 2012 candidates moved closer to an anti-Washington ideology—associated with the Tea Party movement—and away from the more traditional social conservative Republican ideology, which was more salient in the 2008 debates. Both Mitt Romney and Ron Paul, the two candidates who ran in both elections, shifted significantly in the ideological direction associated with the Tea Party.
Tea Party Influence: A Story of Activists and Elites
American Politics Research, 2012
Understanding how the Tea Party has affected congressional elections and roll call voting helps us understand not only an important political movement, but how movements affect politics more generally. We investigate four channels for the movement to influence political outcomes: activists, constituent opinion, group endorsement activity and elite-level self-identification. We find consistent evidence that activists mattered both electorally and for roll call voting on issues of importance to the movement. Constituent opinion had virtually no impact on either political outcome. Group endorsement activity had possible effects on elections, but mostly no effect on congressional voting. Self-identification among elites did not enhance—or harm—Republican electoral fortunes, but did affect congressional votes important to the movement. These divergent results illustrate how movement politics can influence outcomes through multiple channels and call into question the usefulness of the “Te...
1 Republican Factionalism and Tea Party Activists By
2015
Abstract: In this paper we examine Republican Party factional differences between Tea Party Republicans and non-Tea Party Republicans. We find, first, that at the mass level Tea Party supporters constitute a majority of Republican identifiers--particularly among those most active in Republican campaigns. We examine the large and significant differences between the two factions. We then turn to an examination of Tea Party (potential) activists, relying on a survey of almost 12,000 supporters of the largest Tea Party membership group: FreedomWorks. Although very similar to the mass sample of tea Party Republicans on issue positions, this group is far more negative towards the Republican Party. We examine the sources of this negativity in ideology, issue priorities, partisanship and political style.
2012
The Tea Party Movement (TPM) has emerged as an important player in United States politics by promoting fiscal conservatism, limited government, free market economics, and Constitutionalism. Candidates championing these TPM values have had some successful campaigns, particularly in the 2010 congressional primary and general elections. In doing so, TPM candidates focused their attacks on President Obama and his supporters in Congress, drawing attention to the increase in government spending and the growing budget deficit. The niche focus of the TPM combined with the strength of the U.S. two-party system and voters‘ partisan loyalties may limit the long-term effectiveness of the group. An analysis of campaign rhetoric from a sample of successful TPM House candidates highlights similarities in language used by the sampled TPM candidates in conveying TPM values. The discussion of similar economic and political climates of the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party and the Tea Party Movement eras provides for a historical comparison from which to predict the future of the TPM. In sum, this thesis suggests that the Tea Party Movement will likely expire with an improved economy and the conclusion of Barack Obama‘s presidency.
The Tea Party: A Party Within a Party
Georgetown University-Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, 2016
It is little surprise that conservatives were politically disaffected in early 2009, or that highly conservative individuals mobilized as a political movement to protest ‘big government’ and Obama’s election. Rather than merely directing its animus against liberals, the Tea Party mobilized against the Republican Party in primaries and beyond. This dissertation draws from original survey, interview, Tea Party blog, and social network datasets to explain the Tea Party’s strategy for mobilization as a ‘Party within a Party’. Integrating new data on the Tea Party with existing theories of political parties, I show that the Tea Party’s strategy transcends the focused aims of a party faction. Instead, it works to co-opt the Republican Party’s political and electoral machinery in order to gain control of the party. This dissertation offers new insights on the Tea Party while developing a theory of intra-party mobilization that endures beyond the Tea Party. Index words: Dissertations, Gover...