Tea Party in The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism
On Abortion:
Regulate abortion clinics more; oppose right to abortion
businesses, death-by-pettifogging regulation for women's health clinics sounded just fine, indeed morally necessary.Tea Party support for regulation of childbearing is certainly not limited to [that one VA group]. Whereas a 58% majority of all
Americans approve of the decision of the Supreme Court to establish a "Constitutional right for women to obtain legal abortions in this country," only 40% of Tea Partiers approve of that court decision and 53% consider it a "bad thing."
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, by T.Skocpol, p. 58
Jan 2, 2012
On Abortion:
Moral opposition to abortion, but not a focal issue
Social issues were beside the point for the Tea Party. In the April 2010 CBS News/New York Times poll, only 14% of Tea Party supporters said social issues were more important to them than economic issues.One Virginia leader sent us a
message the morning after we witnessed a Tea Party meeting in which strong views were expressed on pro-life issues. She wrote, "Tea Party organizations typically do not take a position on social issues such as abortion and gay rights.
The conservatism that unites us is governmental and fiscal, not social. While it is rare to have discussion of social issues come up at our meetings, it will on occasion."
Actually, in our observation, it is not so rare for socially conservative moral arguments to come up in Tea Party meetings. In practice, social conservatives make up a vocal majority of many Tea Parties.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 37
Jan 2, 2012
On Budget & Economy:
2009: Tea Party sparked by opposing mortgage bailout
On February 19, 2009, from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CNBC television reporter Rick Santelli burst into a tirade against the Obama Administration's nascent foreclosure relief plan: "The government is rewarding bad behavior!"
Santelli shouted. He invited America's "capitalists" to a "Chicago Tea Party" to protest measures to "subsidize the losers' mortgages." Video of the Santelli rant quickly scaled the media pyramid.
The rant headlined the "Drudge Report" and was widely re-televised. Anyone who hadn't caught Santelli's original outburst could hardly miss the constant replays and escalating responses.Across the country, disgruntled conservatives perked up.
The "Tea Party" symbolism was a perfect rallying point since it brings to mind the original American colonial rebels opposing tyranny by tossing chests of tea into Boston Harbor.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 7
Jan 2, 2012
On Budget & Economy:
Economic pessimism: Great Recession part of downward spiral
Journalists and academics have speculated that the Tea Party must be a response to the Great Recession that gathered force starting in 2008. The coincidence of popular protests with plunging economic indicators makes this seem plausible.
For Tea Partiers, however, pessimism about the economy is politically tinged. Tea Partiers who started organizing in 2009 got an extra prod from the downward-spiraling economy [but] Tea Partiers do not come from the groups that have borne the brunt of
the recent US economic crisis.Though members of the Tea Party do not bear the heaviest economic burden, they do have some of the most negative views of the economy, and their worries bleed into broader fears. Overall, fewer than half of
Americans said that good jobs are a thing of the past. But for members of the Tea Party, it felt as though the fundamentalist rules about the American Dream had changed. Working hard no longer meant getting ahead.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 29-30
Jan 2, 2012
On Budget & Economy:
Budget woes more about coming collapse than redistribution
Tea Partiers speak constantly about an out-of-control federal budget deficit and the coming doom they think it portends for the US. There is real-world basis for worrying about the US fiscal situation, of course, though the US is in reasonably good
fiscal shape, as the steady health of the bond market attests. Tea Party worries about national debt therefore refer to real problems, but magnify them out of all proportion. Why? As we have learned, Tea Partiers are concerned that US deficits might be
addressed in part with tax hikes, which they imagine would require people like them to help pay for social spending that benefits undeserving freeloaders. But the fiscal question in the Tea Party imagination is more than just a redistributive matter,
more than just a set of worries about taxes and social spending. In the highly emotional telling of many Tea Partiers, the ballooning federal deficit merges into a general sense of a coming collapse for America.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 76-77
Jan 2, 2012
On Budget & Economy:
Don't raise debt limit; already facing economic Armageddon
One group was discussing the debt limit. With little angst, they agreed it should not be raised--and planned to pressure their Congressional representatives accordingly. In the summer of 2011, national surveys showed that Tea Party sympathizers were
especially likely to oppose raising the federal debt limit, despite the financial crisis that might follow. Tea Partiers believe that the US already faces economic Armageddon, so a further step in that direction does not provoke much concern.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p.180
Jan 2, 2012
On Civil Rights:
Majority oppose gay marriage or civil unions
Tea Party support for regulation of marriage is certainly not limited to [the few groups that raise the issue]. Although the Tea Party includes a significant portion of libertarians who think differently, Tea Partiers are more likely than Americans in
general to oppose legal recognition of gay marriage or civil unions. About 2/3 of all Americans favor one or another of those forms of recognition, but less than half of Tea Party supporters do--and 40% of them advocate "no legal recognition" of any kind
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, by T.Skocpol, p. 58
Jan 2, 2012
On Civil Rights:
More male Tea Party members, but more female leadership
We were urged to talk about "sexism" in the Tea Party. [But] in our field observations, we saw many energetic women taking the lead in grassroots Tea Party activities. Both men & women serve as local and state Tea Party leaders, of course. But it appears
that, although men may be more likely to support the Tea Party, women are dominating the organizing efforts.Many of the men who tell pollsters that they sympathize with or generally support the Tea Party may be doing so from their armchairs. In the
local Tea Party meetings we visited, women provided active leadership. Even when a man chaired the meeting, women were invariably in charge of the sign-up sheets & email lists.
It certainly appears that some women have a great deal of influence at the
local level, and some have used grassroots Tea Party activism as a stepping-stone to state and national influence. That would be nothing new in the annals of American civic democracy. Women's leadership has been well documented for the Christian Right.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 42-43
Jan 2, 2012
On Civil Rights:
Racial minorities seen as undeserving, but so are whites
As we listened to our Tea Party interlocutors talk about underserving people collecting welfare benefits, racially-laden group stereotypes certainly did float in and out of the interviews, even when people never mentioned African-Americans directly.
A sense of "us versus them" along racial and ethnic fault lines clearly marks the worldview of many people active in the Tea Party.At least one scholarly study suggests that problematic racial assumptions are widely held by Tea Party supporters. Tea
Party supporters tended to rate blacks and Latinos as less hardworking than did other respondents. Tea Partiers' views of minorities were even more extreme than other avowed conservatives and Republicans. It is important to note that, compared to other
Americans, Tea Partiers rate WHITES relatively poorly on these characteristics, too. Tea Partiers have negative views about all their fellow citizens; it is just that they make extra-jaundiced assessments of the work ethic of racial and ethnic minorities
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 68-69
Jan 2, 2012
On Education:
College kids should get jobs, not Food Stamps
Young adults in college are not exempt from Tea Party suspicion. Montana GOP Congressman Denny Rehberg, a Tea Party favorite, was no doubt speaking to the choir when he recently denounced aid to college students as "the welfare of the 21st century."
A similar point was made in an April 2010 blog posting on the Greater Boston Tea Party website, claiming that college kids are taking advantage of the Food Stamp program. "Call me crazy," the blogger opined, "but when I needed money for college,
I got a job." The limited economic opportunities available to young people were not something Tea Party members mentioned to us. Nor did they express any concern about declining college attendance and completion for lower-income and lower-middle-income
young people--a decline that has caused the US to fall behind in the global higher education sweepstakes. Instead, Tea Partiers condemned the behavior of the young in moral terms.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 73-74
Jan 2, 2012
On Education:
Dismiss objectionable intellectuals as over-educated elites
Although Tea Partiers dismiss intellectuals with harsh rhetoric, they are themselves usually well educated. Most of those we spoke to had a college education, and many had advanced degrees. One Tea Partier objected to a brief written survey we had
provided, saying it did not allow her to list her full academic credentials. As with those deemed undeserving, the category of the "intellectual elite" is more politically symbolic than based on clear-cut empirical facts.
In Tea Partyland, ideology and politics separate objectionable educated elites from other highly educated people.Because of their supposed disdain for average Americans, liberal elites are imagined to be plotting new forms of regulation and control.
They think "they know what's best for us," one Virginia Tea Partier explained. Regulations supported by liberals are perceived as a foreign moral code, an imposition of un-American ideals.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 80
Jan 2, 2012
On Government Reform:
Restore constitutionally-limited government
A tour of Tea Party websites around the country quickly reveals widespread determination to restore 21st century US government to the Constitutional principles articulated by the 18th century Founding Fathers. In Nebraska, the Crawford Tea Party
describes itself simply as "a group of concerned citizens who desire to see a restoration of Constitutional government." Tea Party groups across America link their present-day activities to a constantly restated reverence for the country's founding
documents: the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence.Constitutional reverence is not just in cyberspace. The US founding documents are woven into the warp and woof of Tea Party routines. Pocket-sized versions of the
Constitution appear on merchandise tables at Tea Party meetings. "Constitution talk" bubbles through discussions in Tea Party gatherings. "Smaller government, the Constitution, and personal responsibility" are the Tea Party's core principles.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 48-49
Jan 2, 2012
On Government Reform:
Insist on legislators actually reading bills before voting
Tea Party people do not defer to experts. Again and again, we heard Tea Partiers express derision about legislators who vote without reading every page and word in proposed legislation, as well as about federal officials who discuss measures they had not
read. When asked if it was reasonable for a busy public figure to entrust the reading of a legal document to lawyers on his staff, we were told in no uncertain terms that this approach is inadequate. Without having read a document personally, Tea
Partiers feel that a citizen or official cannot be sure of what it contains.Tea Party skepticism about experts is part and parcel of their direct approach to democracy, their belief in citizen activism. To guard against possible bamboozlement, Tea
Party members arm themselves for confrontations with their Representatives by reading particular bills themselves. For Tea Party activists, any hint that a legislator or expert has not personally read every line of a bill is a damning indictment.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 53-54
Jan 2, 2012
On Gun Control:
Important goal to safeguard Second Amendment rights
Tea Partiers did not bask for long in the 2010 afterglow. It was no time to relax and let Republicans in office fall into go-along-to-get-along routines of meeting Democrats halfway.
Tea Partiers set their sights on still-greater gains at the polls in 2011 and 2012, but would not stand down until then.
They would not hear of compromises, and pushed GOP officials to act quickly and unremittingly: to reduce taxes, slash public spending, curb public sector unions, and clear away regulations on business. Policing immigrants, safeguarding
2nd Amendment gun rights, and promoting pro-life and traditional family values were also goals for many at the grass roots.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 4
Jan 2, 2012
On Immigration:
Oppose use of government services by illegal immigrants
Tea Partiers regularly invoke illegal immigrants as prime examples of free-loaders who are draining public coffers. In our interviews, Tea Party people placed little emphasis on the threat of immigrants taking American jobs.
Instead, the major concern was the illegitimate and costly use of government funds and services by illegal immigrants.
Tea Party members base their moral condemnation on the fact that these are "lawbreakers" who crossed the border without permission and thus are using American resources unfairly.Tea Party participants across the
US are very worried about the receipt of public assistance or use of government services by unauthorized immigrants. Those we interviewed worried that immigrants were being given "rights" that she and others had had to "earn."
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 71-72
Jan 2, 2012
On Principles & Values:
Tea Party includes some astroturf and some grassroots
Many supporters proclaim the Tea Party to be purely a grassroots rebellion, a "mass movement of 'regular' Americans with real concerns about losing the right to live their lives as they choose." This view captures only a small part of the truth, ignoring
the fact that Tea Party participants are in many respects even more ideologically extreme than other very conservative Republicans. Similarly, the "mass movement" portrayed overlooks the fact that the Tea Party, understood in its entirety, includes media
hosts and wealthy political action committees, plus national advocacy groups and self-proclaimed spokespersons--elites that wield many millions of dollars in political contributions and appear all over the media claiming to speak for grassroots activists
who certainly have not elected them, and to whom they are not accountable. The opposite illusion is also there among those who proclaim the Tea Party to be nothing more than an "astroturf" phenomenon.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 11
Jan 2, 2012
On Principles & Values:
About 160,000 active participants in Tea Party movement
Our nationwide survey of local Tea Parties turned up about 1000 groups spread across all 50 states, including about 800 groups that appeared to be active in the spring and early summer of 2011.
Some local Tea Parties are very large, with online membership lists of 1000 people or more. But most local Tea Parties have much smaller contact lists, and the typical meeting has a few dozen people in attendance.
Overall, a generous assumption is that approximately 800 active local Tea Parties have, on overage, 200 members apiece--that is, people who sign up to be regularly notified and attend gatherings at least occasionally.
That multiplies out to 160,000 very active grassroots participants in Tea Parties across the US.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 22
Jan 2, 2012
On Principles & Values:
Tea Party Demographics: Mostly middle-aged and beyond
Although not every active Tea Partier is a senior citizen, most are middle-aged and beyond--a key social characteristic. Probably the age profile of the Tea Party nudges younger in urban areas, especially in locales where libertarian college students may
turn up. But at the Tea Party meetings we attended in rural and suburban venues, graying hair topped almost every head.Despite occasional efforts at intergenerational outreach, Tea Partiers do not seem anguished about their upward-tilted profile.
The paucity of younger participants is usually taken in stride. Tea Partiers are "older and wiser," one member in Arizona told us. Similarly, a
Virginia Tea Party member explained that older Americans are more attuned to Tea Party priorities. "28-year-olds are not paying the bills" and so they are not as attracted to the Tea Party as people over 50, who worry about fiscal matters.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 24-25
Jan 2, 2012
On Principles & Values:
Tea Party includes both moral conservatives & libertarians
We've seen a number of traits that mostly unite engaged Tea Party supporters, including race, age, socioeconomic class, and, above all, very conservative political views. There is, however, one major dimension along which Tea Party activists show
diversity. Some Tea Partiers are social conservatives focused on moral and cultural issues ranging from pro-life concerns to worries about the impact of recent immigrants on the cultural coherence of American life, while others are much more
secular-minded libertarians, who stress individual choice on cultural matters and want the Tea Party as a whole to give absolute priority to fiscal issues.
When it comes to hammering out shared positions or setting priorities for local Tea Party activity, there can be significant friction between these two clusters, particularly about religion and the role of government in enforcing moral standards.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 35-36
Jan 2, 2012
On Principles & Values:
Borrow Alinsky's community organizing methods from the left
Some of the civic organizers we met were very savvy indeed about what it takes to get people involved and committed to a shared cause. [One organizer] worried that Tea Party meetings might become too focused on outside lecturers. He did not want people
to be mere "spectators" and urged his group to set aside time for discussion and decisions about joint endeavors. A Tea Party organizer like him could sit down and have a very fruitful conversation about community organizing with the best leftists
organizers we know. Indeed, some Tea Party members are explicit about borrowing from the left. A number of our interviewees cited the work of Saul Alinsky, the famed community organizer and author of "Rules for Radicals." Other Tea Party organizers
arrive at the same sorts of insights based on lifetimes of civic experience and their own instincts about what it takes to build a vibrant local Tea Party.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 41-42
Jan 2, 2012
On Principles & Values:
Defining book: The Five Thousand Year Leap
"The 5000 Year Leap" is a book popular with many Tea Partiers for its elucidation of ties between the Bible and the Constitution. Written in 1981 by ultra-right ideologue Cleon Skousen, this book explains the US Constitution and the founding of the US in
Biblical terms. All but forgotten for many years, the book found new life after Glenn Beck dubbed it "divinely inspired." One Arizonan Tea Party regular calls the book "one of our Bibles." Tea Party websites often refer to the books' conclusions in their
discussion of America's religious heritage. In South Carolina, the Greenville Tea Party's website claims that the Founding Fathers used "28 fundamental beliefs to create a society based on morality, faith, and ethics," and that "more progress was
achieved in the last 200 years than in the previous 5,000 years of every civilization combined"--2 claims drawn directly from Skousen's book. For these Tea Party members, Skousen provides proof that America is a "Republic with Christian-Judeo influences.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 51-52
Jan 2, 2012
On Principles & Values:
Obama is subject of immense suspicion of illegitimacy
The policies and person of Barack Hussein Obama were the subject of immense suspicion at every Tea Party event or interview we attended. It is no coincidence that Tea Party activism began within weeks of President Obama's inauguration.
Several interviewees dated their concerns about the country and national politics to Obama's election or the 2008 campaign. Others told us, quite credibly, about long-simmering worries, and insisted that the Tea Party is not just or only about opposition
to Obama. Obama is perceived by many Tea Partiers as a foreigner, an invader pretending to be an American, a 5th columnist. Obama's past as a community organizer is taken as evidence that he works on behalf of the undeserving poor and wishes to
mobilize government resources on their behalf. His academic achievements and social ties put him in league with the country's intellectual elite, whose disdain feels very real to many Americans, and whose cosmopolitan leanings seem unpatriotic.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 77-79
Jan 2, 2012
On Principles & Values:
Separate Tea Party from GOP response to State of the Union
On January 25th, 2011, following the President's State of the Union address and the traditional response from the opposing party, President Obama duly delivered his address, and the officially designated GOP spokesman, Representative Paul Ryan of
Wisconsin, delivered his party's rebuttal. But then CNN teamed up with Tea Party Express to broadcast yet another response to the President--by Michelle Bachman, Republican from Minnesota and the self-appointed chair of the House Tea Party Caucus!
CNN's broadcast could give a casual viewer the false impression that the Tea Party was something apart from both major parties; consequently, in the aftermath, the network drew criticism from the right and the left for airing what was essentially a 2nd
GOP response to Obama. But CNN defended its choice, claiming that the Tea Party "has become a major force in American politics." This did not explain, however, why one GOP politician was an appropriate mouthpiece for the entire complex phenomenon.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p.150
Jan 2, 2012
On Social Security:
Older citizens have earned Social Security
We felt skeptical that Tea Partiers opposed major US entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare, given the obvious demographic facts of Tea Party life. Tea Party people know that Social Security, Medicare, and veteran's programs are government-
managed, expensive, and funded with taxes. It is just that they distinguish these programs, which they feel recipients have "earned", from other social benefits, which they feel unnecessarily run up expenses. Or might run up public costs in the future--
placing a burden on hardworking taxpayers to make payments to freeloaders who have not earned public support.Much of the Tea Party brouhaha about the "federal budget deficit" is a preemptive strike against funding for unworthy programs and recipients,
not a call for cutting off spending on programs like Medicare and Social Security that currently benefits people like them. There is a strong sense among Tea Party people that they have earned these social protections through lifetimes of hard work.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 59-60
Jan 2, 2012
On Social Security:
Increase the payroll tax to sustain Social Security
Not a single grassroots Tea Party supporter we encountered argued for privatization of Social Security or Medicare. Even a Virginia man who calls Social Security a "Ponzi scheme," noted that the Bush plan for the privatization of Social Security, which
he supported at the time, would have been disastrous for seniors in this economy. There is almost nothing done by the government that the private sector cannot do better; but when pressed on Social Security, he stops short and gropes for a halfway point;
he might privatize the administration, he tentatively suggests, but not the funds themselves.When Tea Partiers expressed concerns to us about Social Security and Medicare, they focused on how to keep the programs solvent, even if additional taxes
might be needed. Indeed, broad surveys show that Tea Party supporters prefer new revenues to sustain Social Security over the long haul. For avowed Tea Party supporters, 2/3 of them support increasing the payroll tax to sustain Social Security.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 61-62
Jan 2, 2012
On Social Security:
Think Tanks support privatization; grassroots does not
Rank-and-file Tea Partiers have considerable affection for Social Security and Medicare, even as they pay lip service about slashing federal spending. Grassroots Tea Partiers have a different take than the policy-makers at right-wing ideological think
tanks, for whom Social Security and Medicare are anathema. National groups such as FreedomWorks have long been committed to privatizing these huge, popular US social insurance programs, taking funds out of them so that taxes on business can be reduced.
Right-wing ideologues also hope to boost for-profit businesses that manage savings for retirement. So what happens when FreedomWorks and other ultra-free-market advocacy groups push these privatizing plans in the name of grassroots Tea Partiers, most of
whom are either on Social Security and Medicare already, or expect to be soon? Will local Tea Partiers become skeptical of advocates claiming to speak for them--at least on matters where Tea Party people have concrete experience and views of their own?
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p.116-117
Jan 2, 2012
On Tax Reform:
80% oppose taxing the rich, compared to 56% in GOP
Older people with some accumulated equity can find an economic downturn very menacing because governments at all levels spend more on programs to help working-age families. Will governments respond by hiking levies on the more economically comfortable?
Many Tea Party people are acutely worried that the answer will be yes. [One participant] reports a strong fear among Tea Partiers that they may be asked to pay higher taxes in the future, a result consistent with our fieldwork experience.
Tea Partiers' dread of tax hikes even surpasses the usual level at which Republicans worry about and oppose tax increases. 80% of Tea Partiers oppose raising taxes on Americans making more than $250,000 a year, a number that far exceeds the 56% of non-
Tea Party Republicans who are opposed to such levies. Even compared to fellow conservatives, Tea Partiers are especially worried about the political response to the economic downturn--which helps explain why the Tea Party outburst happened when it did.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 31
Jan 2, 2012
On Technology:
Leadership opposes net neutrality; grassroots has no opinion
The Tea Party Patriots (TPP) website was up and running within days of the original Santelli rant. [One of the] co-founders is a GOP consultant. Dubbing itself the "official grassroots American movement,"
TPP has developed the strongest ties to grassroots activists.TPP was originally supported by FreedomWorks. TPP also lines up in lockstep with FreedomWorks on certain issues where grassroots activists seem to have no say or involvement.
In the spring of 2011, for example, the Tea Party Patriots' homepage bore a lengthy statement of opposition to net neutrality, a policy also opposed by FreedomWorks and the telecommunications industry.
But this issue was literally never raised in any of our Tea Party meetings or interviews. The prominent TPP stance on net neutrality is not attributable to grassroots mobilization.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p.108
Jan 2, 2012
On Welfare & Poverty:
Support earned entitlements, but oppose unearned handouts
Tea Partiers are said to be different. Observers from all over the map portray them as firm and consistent in pure opposition to taxes, big government, handouts to business, and expensive social programs and intrusive regulations.But Tea Partiers are
not opposed to all kinds of regulation or big tax-supported spending. We find them to be updated versions of long-standing populist conservative ideas. At the grass roots, Tea Partiers want government to get out of the way of business.
Yet at the same time, virtually all want government to police immigrants. And the numerous social conservatives in Tea Party ranks want authorities to enforce their conception of traditional moral norms. More telling still, almost all Tea Partiers favor
generous social benefits for Americans who "earn" them; yet in an era of rising federal deficits, they are very concerned about being stuck with the tax tab to pay for "unearned" entitlements handed out to unworthy categories of people.
Source: The Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 55-56
Jan 2, 2012
Page last updated: Feb 22, 2019