Armey
was a tireless advocate at big, stagey Tea Party rallies and confabs for the Tea
Party's anti-big government hard line message. Now both are out. If that wasn't
bad news enough for the Tea Party, GOP conservative House leaders turned on it
and ousted Representatives Tim Huelskamp of Kansas and Justin Amash
of Michigan two of the loudest Tea Party position advocates from the House
Budget Committee. They were kicked to the curb almost certainly because GOP
House leaders know they have to make a deal with President Obama on the budget
or risk being further dragged through the public and media mud as being
the cause for shoving the nation over
the fiscal cliff. The Tea Party's brand of patented loose cannon obstructionism
is too threatening to a GOP still reeling from the election flop. The ouster of the Tea Party hardliners and
desertions by GOP bigwigs from the movement was hardly the first rumbling that
the lights are dimming for the Tea Party.
A
year earlier, polls showed that far more Americans had an unfavorable view of
the Tea Party than when it roared on the scene a couple of years earlier. The
disaffection cut across all lines and that included many conservatives. The reason for the plunge in Tea Party
backing in Red State districts support wasn't hard to find. When Tea Party
affiliated candidates scored big victories and even upsets of GOP incumbents in
some races in 2010 they had one mantra and that was to shrink government, and
shrink it fast. Millions of Americans cheered their war call, and voted for the
candidates that yelped it the loudest. But it's one thing to scream about big
government, bloated federal spending, and whopping federal debts, and it's
quite another to actually hold Congress, and by extension, the nation hostage
in an uncompromising, shrill battle to chop down government.
The
Tea Party, in effect, wildly overreached and many conservatives didn't like it.
Tea Party backed congressional members stalled every piece of legislation that
might have put people back to work, demanded draconian slashes in Medicare and
Social Security, gummed up the works on debt reduction talks between Obama and
GOP House leaders, and wasted congressional time and energy passing bills and
amendments to kill health care reform as well as education, health, social
service and law enforcement programs locally and nationally. The result was that Congress was
at a virtual stall for two years and public approval of Congress dropped to
lows that made used car salespersons look like public champions
The
open backlash against the Tea Party wasn't lost on GOP mainstream leaders, who
even in the best of Tea Party days were anxious, if not downright terrified,
that their shock battalions might get to unruly, and go too far overboard, and
alienate the moderate and conservative independents that they got back in the
GOP fold in 2010. They desperately needed them to have any chance of beating
Obama in 2012. Obviously, that didn't happen. Now with the 2014 mid-term
elections shaping up to be a titanic battle for the GOP to hold onto the House
and not lose any more ground in the Senate, open advocacy of Tea Party
positions becomes even more of a risk. The GOP with the Tea Party drag on it
would have absolutely no chance to make any headway on immigration reform. That
would kill the slender chance it had to soften opposition from Hispanic voters
to the GOP. It would also turn off thousands more conservative voters who want
to see government get back on track and get results.
The
Tea Party is far from dead. There are many Americans that still think the idea of
smaller government, caps on spending, and debt reduction are noble and
necessary goals worth fighting for. Millions of them voted for failed GOP
presidential candidate Mitt Romney solely because they bought into his promise
to shrink government. Though a majority
of Americans now back Obamacare, a significant minority still don't. And they
will continue to make noise. That and having the Tea Party label attached to
the GOP is a huge liability that GOP leaders can no longer afford.
Earl
Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a frequent political
commentator on MSNBC and a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American
Urban Radio Network. He is the author of
How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge. He is an associate
editor of New America Media. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on
KPFK-Radio and the Pacifica Network.
Follow
Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson
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