Just How Did The Tea Party Happen?

In a recent Wall Stret Journal opinion piece, Peegy Noonan stated that in her belief, the Tea party has saved the Republican Party. She writes:

"In a broad sense, the tea party rescued it from being the fat, unhappy, querulous creature it had become, a party that didn't remember anymore why it existed, or what its historical purpose was. The tea party, with its energy and earnestness, restored the GOP to itself."

She has a point, and in the aftermath of the party's rise to notoriety, followed swiftly by fame and prominence, the Tea Party has some powerful lessons to teach both parties. Now understand, I don't agree with a lot of what the further fringes of the movement have to say, and I know by listening to more moderate party members, that they themselves would distance the party from the frankly homophobic and seemingly racist elements there. But from a pragmatic sense, the Democrats and Republicans in power can learn from the Tea Party a very important lesson: they are woefully out of touch with their own nation.

This is especially true of the Republicans at this point in time. Think about it. When the Tea Party first emerged, camps on both sides of the political spectrum laughed them off as some kind of bastard offspring of Midwestern millitia movements (which in the minorty is true). Then Sarah Palin happened. Concurrently the right wing radio hosts began taking the movement seriously as a challenge to the listless and mostly new idea-free nature of the current Repulbican party. Then Fox News seemed to officially join the Tea Party fund drive, followed swiftly by the election of Christine O'Donnell and possible success of more Tea Party backed candidates. And while all this happened, the Republican leadership watched largely mute, not understanding what was happening to their own party. And let's not forget that even as Tea Party politicians are grabbing elected positions, the Democrat leadership still seems to regard them as a bunch of yahoos, a total non-threat.

Noonan also pointed out that the Tea Party also helped the Republicans by not going the third party route. But I feel that if they are not extended a more loving hand from the GOP, they still might. And that would spell big trouble for both parties.

The problem I have is this: Tea Partiers have some continually demonstrated habits that are inconsistent with our overall American political scene. Firstly and most importantly, they act like a cult. Sound too extreme? Consider their inherent distrust of outsiders, and oft repeated paranoia about socialism, government intervention and expansion. Many times they rail against things that aren't actually happening or wildly exaggerate things that are. Worse, they don't feel they have to answer to the press, which in a broader sense means they don't have to answer to their potential constituencies, or at least the non-conservative elements of them. The repeated requests for softball interviews from "friendly" outlets and cancelling of appearances (even on Fox, for crying out loud) suggests these people are either incredibly nervous about articulating their views in the face of debate, or they simply don't feel they need to.

The right wing noise machine has, essentially since the rise of Rush Limbaugh, created a self-fullfilling prophecy, that essentially says that the mainstream media lies to you 100% of the time. This has created packaged news as a product, a concept that helped spawn Fox News and the insular, paranoid nature of the Tea Party. Did packaged news aimed at liberals exists before? Sure it did, and conservatives decried it. Now they've created their own version of it and are basking in it's warm glow. So in the end it's not about reporting news accuratley, it's about reporting news politically, and whether the right or left is steering the ship, the american public are the ones who drown in a sea of slanted information.

It is out of this vaccuum that the Tea Party emerged, or was at least assisted by it. I'm not against Tea Party candidites running, or even winning elections. But when you refuse to speak to the press in a broad, responsible sense, you risk becoming something that conservatives are endlessly accusing liberals of being: elitist.

By Mike Grefski