Tea party pushed to the side by Trump juggernaut

[Speedy]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016...uggernaut/

The tea party movement, which dominated Republican elections in 2010 and 2012 and forced Congress to move to the right policywise, has hit a rough patch.

House Tea Party Caucus Chairman Tim Huelskamp lost his primary this week, meaning one of the movement’s leading voices on Capitol Hill will go silent.

Meanwhile, on the presidential campaign trail, Sen. Rand Paul’s presidential hopes fizzled out quickly, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was booed off stage at the Republican National Convention and Sen. Marco Rubio is now seen by many as a member of the GOP establishment.

The reversal of fortune has left tea party leaders wondering where it went downhill — and the answer they keep coming back to is Donald Trump.

“I had been predicting a tea party resurgence in 2016 because I thought the climate was right for it, but the only problem was that a guy named Donald Trump came along and basically co-opted the movement,” said Judson Phillips, head of Tea Party Nation.

While Mr. Trump has the anti-establishment credentials tea partyers craved, his stances — and questions over how strongly he is committed to conservative principles — have deeply divided voters.

Ken Crow, a tea party activist in Iowa, said the “tea party is in turmoil” over how to feel about Mr. Trump.

“The hard-core tea party wanted a strict constitutional guy like a Mike Lee or Ted Cruz — someone who prays, loves the Constitution, loves guns and waives the flag,” he said. “But the more pragmatic tea partyers realized that Ted Cruz could not win, so they jumped aboard the Trump train.

“They got their outsider, it just so happens that he is not a conventional outsider, and now they are starting to go ‘oops,’” Mr. Crow said.

[$tevie]

The tea party had the seeds of its destruction locked within itself, because you can't be against government and at the same time try to be part of government. The logical end of this path was a Trumplike candidate who has no concept of government, and hopefully an implosion which will leave scattered chunks of tea party but the ruin of their influence.

[samintx]

My fear is what will happen AFTER TRUMPSTER loses the general election. Will he be booed out of the US scene or will he as I have hinted start a TV channel and an independent force of his followers…essentially a third party after him losing the "rigged" General Election of 2016.

[Lemon Drop]

Yesterday I got to chat with my friend who was a Washington state delegate to the Republican convention in Cleveland, is a member of the national rules committee, and was in Sen. Mike Lee's anti-Trump group. (She supported Ted Cruz). She said that conservatives were basically told to shut up by the Trump campaign and are left with no place to go in this election. She said the booing during Cruz's speech was orchestrated by the Trump campaign, which had seen the speech in advance and allowed it to go forward. The goal was to humiliate Cruz but it probably backfired with a lot of Tea Party voters.

She describes Trump's candidacy as a "hostile takeover" of the party and said that the Trump campaign and his supporters have done more damage to the party from the inside than Democrats could ever do from the outside.

Now - in my mind there's some irony here because Tea Party conservatives themselves did a "hostile takeover'" over of the party in 2008, and now find themselves on the outside looking in. And more moderate Republicans have been doing that going back to 1994.

So I really do wonder what comes next for the GOP -

[Carnos Jax]

Lemon Drop wrote: Now - in my mind there's some irony here because Tea Party conservatives themselves did a "hostile takeover'" over of the party in 2008, and now find themselves on the outside looking in.

I see it the same way.

[pdq]

samintx wrote:
My fear is what will happen AFTER TRUMPSTER loses the general election. Will he be booed out of the US scene or will he as I have hinted start a TV channel and an independent force of his followers…essentially a third party after him losing the "rigged" General Election of 2016.

I'm inclined to think he has nowhere to go but down. A big part of his appeal is his bluster about what only he can do and winning. If he's shown to be incapable of winning, that's going to put a crack in the facade for a lot of supporters.

(Unless the election was "stolen" from him, of course...)

[vision63]

Lemon Drop wrote:
Yesterday I got to chat with my friend who was a Washington state delegate to the Republican convention in Cleveland, is a member of the national rules committee, and was in Sen. Mike Lee's anti-Trump group. (She supported Ted Cruz). She said that conservatives were basically told to shut up by the Trump campaign and are left with no place to go in this election. She said the booing during Cruz's speech was orchestrated by the Trump campaign, which had seen the speech in advance and allowed it to go forward. The goal was to humiliate Cruz but it probably backfired with a lot of Tea Party voters.

She describes Trump's candidacy as a "hostile takeover" of the party and said that the Trump campaign and his supporters have done more damage to the party from the inside than Democrats could ever do from the outside.

Now - in my mind there's some irony here because Tea Party conservatives themselves did a "hostile takeover'" over of the party in 2008, and now find themselves on the outside looking in. And more moderate Republicans have been doing that going back to 1994.

So I really do wonder what comes next for the GOP -

There is only one reasonable response the Republican Party can initiate for moderation. It's their party. Their job for this private entity is to present it's best, most competitive candidates for election to public office. Develop firewalls designed to preserve the health and integrity of their party. Had they had the Dems Super Delegates, Trump isn't the nominee. Hillary would be whipping someone else's ass.

Job one now would be to pull all support for Trump, redirect it to down ballot races. Preserve what dignity they have left and live to fight another day. They cannot allow him to win.