Posted on 10/30/2013 3:58:07 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
It's instructive to remember that when the Tea Party first began to gather steam, the name referred to a "party" in the celebration sense – the Boston Tea Party, specifically: an event of planned chaos, a protest that masqueraded as an Indian attack. Over time, the name has lost its punny puckishness much as the movement has steadily shifted from a proudly anacharical – even populist – response and rebellion within the GOP to a smoothly functioning alternative to it.
The government shutdown proved that attempts by the GOP establishment to co-opt the Tea Party as a source of energy just created a network of political sleeper agents. With its own mechanism for drafting (and supporting) candidates, its own agenda, and its own media eco-system, the Tea Party is a third_party by almost any criteria but ballot affiliation–and leadership. The absence of any official organizational structure might be one reason the Tea Party has remained so lively despite a terrible national reputation and negligible policy achievements. When something goes wrong, those identified with the failure fade for a time and the attention of Tea Party-identified voters shifts smoothly to someone else. There's also no demand for positive policy victories or signature legislation: no one has to win a debate, just spoil the outcome.
Thus it's no surprise that Ted Cruz is the current face of the Tea Party: All his achievements are proudly in the negative, all his goals are set resolutely in the past. But the Tea Party's fickle and hive-like nature virtually demands that Cruz cycle out of the spotlight eventually. He will either fail to stop something from happening or, perhaps worse, accidently cause something to get done.
For when that happens: here's a look at some of the Tea Party's once and perhaps future leaders....
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Comment: I hope there’s plenty more of them.
Count me in!
She must be talking about the foreign nation formed by the northeastern states with their capitol in NYC.
Not surprising that the British turn up their little snoots at the Tea Party.
After all, they were the target for the first go-round.
Party is not in the celebration sense. The government going broke and threatening to take us with them is nothing to celebrate.
To Commies, anyone that doesn’t bow down and kiss the feet of Big Govt is a “nut”
Second comment: Why do you post garbage propaganda from the Guardian?
Only a liberal idiot could write garbage like this.
I’ll post anything I please, unless you’re the site owner. Are you?
Wonkette: just another DC slut.
I forgot to count the number of men at the first Continental Congress that created the U. S. Constitution but that number should be added to the list.
Meanwhile, the inmates are now running the asylum and calling everyone else crazy.
Wow. It’s been a long time since I’ve been called
puckish, punny yes, pucker no.
Hahahahaha, these morons have no idea what we are about.
This comes to you courtesy of Manchester, one of Britain’s scummier big cities.
Would this be the Manchester NH newspaper, the home state of backstabbing saboteur minimcain Kelly Ayotte?
I feel dumber after reading this.
Isn’t Anna Cox the one that was “Wonkette” and ran around with the notorious serial slut Washingtonienne that liked to blog about screwing a different guy each night of the week?
You’ve been here long enough to know that such rubbish deserves a barf alert.
The first paragraph is so inanely wrong it would be a waste of time to read further.
Second comment: Why do you post garbage propaganda from the Guardian?
...just a wild guess on my part, but maybe he really wanted to get a discussion going...imagine that, on an open forum...
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