The Pure Tea-Party America Is Mostly a Dream of the Republican Politician

Paul Brill writes that it is indisputable that there will be rumbling in the Republican camp for a while.

Have we witnessed a reversal in American politics in the past week? Has Republican pride definitely come to an end?

There is no doubt that the Republicans have undergone a big, ignominious defeat in the fight with the White House. Without any allowance on definition, they have had to agree to the re-opening of the government and the debt ceiling increase. The introduction of Obamacare is happening.

It is also indisputable that there will be rumbling in the Republican camp for a while. Although most Americans are still not excited for Obamacare, not many clapped for the crowbar that the Republicans wanted to use to force President Obama into far-reaching concessions. Polls indicate that the majority of voters saw Republicans as the most prominent instigator of the impasse in Washington.

Successful Tea Party Tactics

But I doubt the unapproachable right wing of the Republican Party will be forced to different, more restrained thought due to the defeat. On the decision day of the budget battle, I saw a number of tea party adepts on CNN. They did not give the impression that they thought the moderate tactic was better after all. The defeat was due to a shortage of consistency and determination. With hardly-concealed disdain, they spoke about John McCain and other moderate party members, who at an early stage had warned that the Grand Old Party would go down. Their scorn was perhaps worse than the critique of Obama and his party members.

That has everything to do with the nature of the tea party. It is more of a protest movement than a programmatic movement. The general consensus is that un-American values have taken control over Washington and little less than a (counter-)revolution is necessary to bring the country back to the right path. The tea party is moving within the Republican Party, but treats the top of the party with basically the same hostility as the Democratic opposition. Even within the GOP, the powers that be have their paladins.

The tea party resistance is fed by an anti-establishment sentiment, which is as old as America itself and has taken on a left-populist form throughout the course of history, such as the late 19th century silverite movement, led by Democrat William Jennings Bryan, also known as the Great Commoner. Also see many Western films in which hard working pioneers have to fight against imperious landowners and corrupt authorities.

Repulsion Against Federal Government

The repulsion against a too-large and meddlesome federal government also took place during the presidency of Bill Clinton, when the Republicans, who captured a majority of the House of Representatives for the first time in a long time in 1994, were also aiming for a budget battle with the White House. But there was an important difference between then and now. In the ‘90s, the Republican resistance was carried on by a conscious coalition of pressure groups from the business world, who wished for a decrease in regulations in particular, and all sorts of conservative action groups on social-cultural ground. This coalition had concrete political goals and found a distinctive leader in Newt Gingrich, speaker of the House, with whom Clinton, after the (victorious) clash of 1996, could wheel and deal well.

That Republican coalition still exists, but it only functions partially. It is lacking leadership. For the pro-business wing, threatening a federal default goes too far. But the tea party believes there is so much at stake that compromises are no longer acceptable — which means intentions are more important than results. As long as intentions are good, defeat is only a temporary setback. And Wall Street is almost as suspicious as Washington.

Many are hoping that the GOP leaders will finally take control and curb the right wing. But the problem is that half of the voters in the Republican primaries are tea party sympathizers. The movement has intimidation power — hence only 87 out of 232 Republicans in the House voting for the budget agreement. The pure America of the tea party exists only in the past for most voters, but for the Republican politician it is an untouchable monument.