They shunned experienced activists (and advice), creating an “us against them” attitude in the GOP community.
This encapsulates the primary weakness of the entire Tea Party movement: a refusal to be organized, and an active shunning of the "RINOs" and "elites."
Well, "RINO" apparently means nothing other than that a person doesn't share your enthusiasm about a particular set of issues. And where political organization is concerned, "elites" can be translated as "people who are successful."
A good organization that could maintain their candidate's discipline, would have made a huge difference in Colorado or Nevada. The Angle (and Buck) campaigns apparently shunned the professionals for ideological reasons, which was just stupid .... but then, had they actually won their races, that ideological attitude would probably have led to Angle (and Buck) being ineffective in DC, anyway.
r9etb wrote:
“This encapsulates the primary weakness of the entire Tea Party movement: a refusal to be organized, and an active shunning of the “RINOs” and “elites.” “
I agree with this. This reminds me of the Perot campaign as well.
A movement like the Tea Party is in trouble if it equates competence and a history of success as “elitism”.