Posted on 05/05/2011 2:09:59 PM PDT by HorowitzianConservative
The Tea Party stands as a moral challenge to the status quo. It’s not a third-party movement. It’s an extra-party movement. It’s not political. It’s philosophical. It is a manifestation of the market, an example of how free minds and free will seep through the cracks of the established paradigm to fulfill unmet needs.
Although it did not manifest in rallies and town halls until 2009, the seeds of the Tea Party were planted 15 years earlier. Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, propelled by the Contract with America. The sweeping reforms Republicans pledged to attempt were largely unsuccessful, an outcome they could lay at the feet of President Clinton. Nonetheless, the perception among rank-and-file conservatives was that the Republicans failed to deliver.
Republican credibility was further eroded when the party held both the White House and Congress during the presidency of George W. Bush. After years of listening to pundits suggest that Democrats were the sole driving force behind ever-expanding government, conservatives watched in awe as Republicans drove the ship of state 180 degrees away from every principle they ran on.
That led to widespread apathy among the grassroots, deflating Republican campaigns and enabling the Democratic victories of 2006 and 2008. Of course, the inauguration of Barack Obama and the subsequent acceleration of government activism through bailouts, nationalized health care, and other forms of “fundamental transformation” reinvigorated conservatives. But they weren’t about to be fooled twice.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsrealblog.com ...
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