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Tea Party Gave GOP a Backbone
newsmax.com ^ | 4/24/14 | Matt Towery

Posted on 04/24/2014 9:22:13 AM PDT by cotton1706

Polling numbers and political maneuverings are increasingly confirming what I first reported months ago. The tea party movement is no longer the large dominant force in the GOP that it was in 2010 or even 2012.

But just because the "tea" might be a bit weaker, Republicans hoping to hang on to their elected positions or who seek to claim elected office need to understand that the political atmosphere might still be lightening up.

In the South, which has been the hotbed for the tea party cause, many big contested GOP nominations that were expected to go to candidates "they" support just don't seem to be moving in that direction. But before the remaining tea partyers start hurling expletives or objects my way, let me make it clear that what their movement really stood for in 2010 remains key to voters today.

That has been made clear by the reaction that is spreading across the West and Southwest as a result of the recent "cattle standoff" in Nevada. Concepts like preserving liberty, curbing government spending, and reducing taxes remain high on the list for those who vote Republican in most states.

What have changed are the mindsets of elected officials who at one time dismissed those who carried flags, dressed like Paul Revere and voted in mass as kooks and misfits. These same politicians very slowly but surely tap danced their way to a far more fiscally conservative position.

Over the past four years we've seen Republicans in Congress first force mandatory cuts as part of a "sequestration process," and then later witnessed the House shut the entire government down. Neither of those events would have taken place had it not been for the powerful footsteps of the tea party revolution.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: elections

1 posted on 04/24/2014 9:22:13 AM PDT by cotton1706
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To: cotton1706

What did they do with it, give it to the Democrats in one of their surrenders?


2 posted on 04/24/2014 9:30:35 AM PDT by Ingtar (The NSA - "We're the only part of government who actually listens to the people.")
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To: cotton1706

It’s all about the “lean.” For years, the media, academia and the dimmos have been causing weak-kneed repubs to lean left, such that they’re pretty much indistinguishable from the dimmos now. The Tea Party has at least caused them to lean right to some degree.


3 posted on 04/24/2014 9:41:18 AM PDT by afsnco
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To: cotton1706

No.

The Tea Party gave them a few vertebrae, but they are still far from having a spine.

There is a good chance that they will get more new vertebrae for the 2015 Congressional session.

Even so, they still need more vertebrae before they can be accused of having a spine.


4 posted on 04/24/2014 9:46:17 AM PDT by TomGuy
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To: cotton1706

Besides giving the Republican Party a backbone, the Tea Party is also giving it a brain. When the last time the GOPe had a good idea?


5 posted on 04/24/2014 10:12:39 AM PDT by CommerceComet (Ignore the GOP-e. Cruz to victory in 2016.)
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To: cotton1706

Before the tea party, there was Palin, she never took a break after the 2008 election, she came out fighting and helped win a Governor’s election in December of that year, we watched as she kept taking on the media and surviving, and how that helped create the tea party and embolden other politicians as the early months of 2009 went by, for a while, she was alone.

We could watch as people like the Texas Governor and Jim DeMint started adopting her tougher tone and taking bolder positions as her confidence seemed to revive and inspire the conservatives in the GOP.


6 posted on 04/24/2014 1:19:02 PM PDT by ansel12 ((Libertarianism offers the transitory concepts and dialogue to move from conservatism, to liberalism)
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