The Tea Party movement is made up of all kinds of people. They range from active Republicans to disaffected Republicans to Libertarians to independents to third party activists.
If there is anyone in this movement who is happy with John Boehner as the Speaker of the House, I have not met them. There are some who might not be on general principles. The third party activists and independents might not. But even those who are Republicans are expressing extreme dissatisfaction with Boehner.
As mentioned previously on Tea Party Nation, Harry Reid has thrown down the gauntlet. He has told Boehner in no uncertain terms, either drop from the budget all of the things the Tea Party movement wants or we will not talk to you. We will not consider anything and will shut the government down.
What has most conservatives, even active Republicans concerned is that Boehner is going to throw in the towel and give Reid everything he wants.
The problem the GOP has is that Boehner is the de facto head of the Party. As the highest-ranking GOP elected official, he is the face of the party. And he is not doing a good job.
There are many in the conservative movement who say the GOP is worthless and there is no difference between the two major political parties. I have always strongly disagreed with that. There is a difference, at least among some of the GOP. Some of the freshman class in the House are showing real potential and there are some great GOP leaders in Congress, such as Michele Bachmann and Jim DeMint to mention a couple.
We know the 2010 election was a referendum on Obama and socialism. The people spoke in a loud voice, though apparently the GOP establishment did not get the word.
The worst-case scenario is not that Boehner only gets $61 billion in cuts. That is pretty much a disaster. What is the worst-case scenario?
The worst-case scenario is Boehner throws the towel in and gives Harry Reid everything he wants. What do we do then?
There are several possibilities. None of them are good. The conservatives in congress would have to engage in an open revolt against the leadership. Even then, there are too many establishment Republicans on Capitol Hill. Hopefully Michele Bachmann and Steve King could round up 218 votes to kill such a deal but I am not hopeful.
As a more serious question, what does the Tea Party do?
If the Democrats want socialism and the GOP refuses to stand up against them, where does that leave us? We clearly need people to get into the GOP at the committee level to change the GOP. The problem with this is it is a long-term strategy. We need to get people in the pipeline to become committee chairmen, to become state committeemen and woman and ultimately get involved as candidates.
From the early days of this movement, the great majority of people in this movement have all been in agreement, we do not want the Tea Party to become a third party. Our disdain for a third party is fueled by the assumption the GOP would step up to the plate and do something.
So far, the GOP under John Boehner has been a terrible disappointment. Time is running out for us if we are going to stop this headlong rush to socialism. What are our alternatives?
A lot of times when I am writing I will use the rhetorical question to set up the answer I want to advocate. This is not a rhetorical question. I do not know the answer to this question. I do not want to see the Tea Party start a third party. I want to see the Republican Party do what we the people asked it to do when we put them in charge.
The government, the military and corporations make all kinds of plans for all kinds of events. While we hope the GOP will do what we ask them to, what if they do not? What is our plan if Boehner surrenders on this?
We better decide and we better do that quickly. Time is running out.
Tags: boehner, party, republican, tea
Permalink Reply by Judson Phillips on Mike
Thanks for taking the time to offer that suggestion. I cannot be a part of it. First, I know the leaders of the major groups. While some would show up, some will not Specifically Tea Party Patriots will not. The only way they would be involved would be if they could control this entire movement. Second, the strength of this movement is that we do not have a single organized structure. Because we are so decentralized we are hard to fight against and because we have so many separate groups, we have a lot of creativity that would be stifled by a single organization. I am certainly willing to work with other groups and we are working on something right now.
Permalink Reply by Vern Shotwell on Mike, I tend to be somewhat more blunt than Judson. No way in Hell will it work!
One of the odd things I do around here is to link up Tea Party groups, in the various states. Just added a TPP group in North Carolina a few minutes ago. It really bothers me to do so!
Why?
Because last spring, TPP, the National group, took the time and effort to remove their TPN links! Just don't want competition!
Why spend my time to advertise TPP at all? Just nasty people, it seems!
An interesting read is ONE MILLION DOLLAR ANONYMOUS DONATION Read the comments, and follow the links! Just the tip of the iceberg, really! And, certainly nothing against the members of local groups. Obviously!
Permalink Reply by Sumsanity on I agree, GOP has been a major let down even after the mandate, so only alternative is a Third party.
I was against a third party but if these duds arent going to do the job we must do something.
Permalink Reply by Lee Dey on When I saw Boehner take the gavel, I knew we were in for more of the same. He has no backbone or integrity. And all that crying is because he can't believe how easy it is to sucker the rest of the GOP.
I say....................shut the government down. At least for the time being, they can't do any more damage if that happens.
Permalink Reply by Linda Rund on Mike D. Plunkett-
I agree with you 100%. The plan you laid out must happen and soon. Judson - will you please respond to Mike's suggestion?
Mike, I'd like to add one more bullet: Bring Michele Bachmann in on this effort....she is the founder and organizer of the DC Tea Party Caucus...right? It's time to take the venting/ranting and actually put in action. The success of this plan can only happen if all the Tea Party Groups across the nation " UNIFY our voices into ONE Tidal Wave". Time is of the essence here...really urgent!!
Good job, Mike.
Permalink Reply by Kenneth H. Frazier on 
Permalink Reply by Pat Fisher on 
Permalink Reply by Sue Carroll on I've never wanted a third party, however, realistically we have a base...all the Tea Party Candidates we just elected, along with DeMint. Did anyone work on one of the newly elected campaigns? Know them well enough to get an honest answer as to what the Leadership is thinking, where "establishment" members are trying to lead us?
Permalink Reply by Nelson R. Lipshutz on Permalink Reply by JOHN DELASAUX on When the Republicans became a third party, there was no Liberal Press, Liberal Media, Soros, and unions hiding behind every garbage can.
Today, a Third Party would end up like the Libertarians -- only 5% of the vote, and stealing most of their votes from the Republicans.
Republicans have a structured party base, access to the ballots everywhere, and generally the correct conservative set of values.
We just have to inject more precinct committee(wo)men into their structure, give them more focus on the important issues, and more backbone.
Permalink Reply by Gene Swank on © 2013 Created by Judson Phillips.
