Origin of Tea Party
The tea Party movement is an American conservative movement; the movement was allied with the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Some of the members of the movement had asked for a reduction in the amount of national debt of the United States. The way forward that they have suggested for cutting down the taxes was to make sure that the amount of government spending is reduced as well as lowering the level of taxes (Madestam et al. 2013). The movement is also unique in its aspect as it openly opposes the idea of the way government-sponsored healthcare is needed to be worked out (Nguyen et al. 2015). The movement has been defined as a mix of populist and conservative activism (Madestam et al. 2013). There are some libertarian tendencies as well in the whole process. The starting point of the movement was the Inaugural speech of Barack Obama in 2009 when his administration called for some bailout packages especially the home mortgage holders (Madestam et al. 2013). There was public criticism of the policy, especially against the bailouts and the situation escalated so much at Chicago Mercantile Exchange that there was a need to create a new tea party (Zernike et al. 2010). Later on, about 50 conservatisms agreed over the conference call that they are going to be coalescing against the agenda that has been propagated by Obama and there were some protests that were scheduled in the given time period (Nguyen et al. 2015). The supporters of the movement and the way they worked had major repercussions on the way the functioning of the Republican Party is going to work out (Madestam et al. 2013). The movement started at the grassroots level but with the passage of time escalated and gained considerable support from pressure groups such as Americans for Prosperity (Karpowitz et al. 2011).
Impact of the Tea Party on Republicans
Before one assesses the impact of the Tea party on overall politics, it needs to be understood is that what is the affiliation of the people who are linked with this party (Williamson et al. 2011). Most of the people who have associated themselves with the party are republicans and it played a huge part in making sure that some sort of shake-up is witnessed in the way this party is working at the moment (Madestam et al. 2013). There are some political commentators who have opined that in the context of the Republic politics, even though they are not a huge political group, they have made sure that the rebranding of the Republic ideals as per the given policies is shaped up in the right manner, to say the least (Madestam et al. 2013). There are many activists who have expressed support to the Republican politicians time after time showing the fact that how the ideal inclinations of these movements are more prone toward the republican thought process (Madestam et al. 2013). The other thing that it sort of did was that how the Republicans are also under due pressure to make sure that they deliver under the ideologies that formed the basis of this party (Madestam et al. 2013). There are some conservative officials (Madestam et al. 2013). The tea party at many levels had made sure that at the national level, there are about 12 individuals who have shown this indication that how the republican through the process is supposed to be applied (Williamson et al. 2011). As a matter of fact, there are some political pundits who have opined that if the Republicans who come into power are not getting rid of Obamacare, then it would turn out to be a huge political disaster (Madestam et al. 2013).
Way Forward for Tea Party
At the moment, the way forward is interesting for Tea Party to say the least. They are managing three cultural tenets at the moment that include fiscal responsibility as well as making sure that the government’s influence over the proceedings as well as the functionality of the free market is being taken care of (Karpowitz et al. 2011). The dilemma for them is to make sure that how they can appear as a forceful pressure group while at the same time making sure that they do not tend to lose their clout and individuality in the whole process (Karpowitz et al. 2011). The interesting thing that is happening is that not only they are acting as a pressure group on the government, but they have also done well to make sure that enough pressure is exerted on the Republicans to ensure that they do not go astray as far as their party politics is concerned (Karpowitz et al. 2011). Thus their separate presence is important to make sure that they create this pressure, the problem though is that they need to maintain this presence to make sure that they allow greater political mileage and visibility (Nguyen et al. 2015). This presence is not going to be possible if they are looking for a separate route as a political party (Williamson et al. 2011). In the current political landscape of the United States, it is very difficult to make sure that they would be able to maintain their political clout as well as make sure that they are in the position to establish enough credence as a political party that can seriously pose a threat (Karpowitz et al. 2011).
How Tea Party Would Fare Independently in Texas
The performance of the Tea Party in the state of Texas is going to be an interesting case study. In the recent primaries and some of the other states, the Tea Party candidates or the ones who are backed by it have not performed well to say the least (Zernike et al. 2010). The only state though where the performance has been rather dominating is the state of Texas where Republicans who were backed by this message gained greater political mileage, to say the least (Zernike et al. 2010). As a matter of fact, the performance that was shown by it was not even surprising, to say the least as the victory was handed over to the favorites as well at the given time period (Karpowitz et al. 2011). There were many analyses that pointed out that the sort of candidates that were representing the ideology of the Tea Party in all the states was also quite different, to say the least (Nguyen et al. 2015). Another thing that was interesting with regards to the result in the state was the fact that how in the history of the state the incumbent has been defeated for the first time during the course of their primary state (Nguyen et al. 2015). Comparing the same thing to the other states, the candidates that were standing in those states were not strong nominations, to say the least on the part of the republicans (Nguyen et al. 2015). Not only they had limited political influence, but they also did not have the right sort of credentials to pose any serious threat in the given time period (Karpowitz et al. 2011). The interesting thing that can be seen with regards to the results from that region is the fact that some of the renowned party names have performed in the given time period (Karpowitz et al. 2011). Today there are alternative coalitions that one could imagine, in theory, but that never come together. There could be a left-right cross-party coalition forming around, say, economic development in areas hit hard by the decline of the coal industry or one advocating stronger support for Social Security.
Number of Political Parties in the United States
In the context of the current political environment, there is a classic case that can be made that there was a need for an alternative voice and stand during the course of the elections. If there are going to be more than two political parties, the case can be made that these would be making huge influence with the passage of time with regards to the way they are performing, to say the least (Karpowitz et al. 2011). Even if there is going to be a case that people are not agreeing with the agenda that is put forth by these parties, the argument can be made that if there is going to be an alternative force, it would go a long way toward making sure that the political landscape is improved in one way or the another allowing a greater wealth of options to the general voters and publics. American political system has delivered decent results across its history but if there is criticism that can be made is how rigid it is when it comes to the way opinion formation is concerned. Both of the parties that are operating in the current landscape are the ones that are armed with enough money and strongholds to make sure that they are stable in certain states and branches at the moment. But it tends to take away any room that might exist for a compromise (Karpowitz et al. 2011). At the moment, there is a need to make sure that new solutions and new coalitions are being made (Karpowitz et al. 2011).
Works Cited
Karpowitz, Christopher F., et al. “Tea time in America? The impact of the Tea Party movement on the 2010 midterm elections.” PS: Political Science & Politics 44.2 (2011): 303-309.
Madestam, Andreas, et al. “Do political protests matter? evidence from the tea party movement.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 128.4 (2013): 1633-1685.
Nguyen, Viet-An, et al. “Tea party in the house: A hierarchical ideal point topic model and its application to Republican legislators in the 112th congress.” Proceedings of the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics and the 7th International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing (Volume 1: Long Papers). Vol. 1. 2015.
Williamson, Vanessa, Theda Skocpol, and John Coggin. “The Tea Party and the remaking of Republican conservatism.” Perspectives on Politics 9.1 (2011): 25-43.
Zernike, Kate, and Megan Thee-Brenan. “Poll finds Tea Party backers wealthier and more educated.” New York Times 14 (2010).
