Roid Rage Tea
by digby
The NY Times takes a look at the "new" GOP if they win big in this election:
Enough Tea Party-supported candidates are running strongly in competitive and Republican-leaning Congressional races that the movement stands a good chance of establishing a sizable caucus to push its agenda in the House and the Senate, according to a New York Times analysis.
With a little more than two weeks till Election Day, 33 Tea Party-backed candidates are in tossup races or running in House districts that are solidly or leaning Republican, and 8 stand a good or better chance of winning Senate seats.
While the numbers are relatively small, they could exert outsize influence, putting pressure on Republican leaders to carry out promises to significantly cut spending and taxes, to repeal health care legislation and financial regulations passed this year, and to phase out Social Security and Medicare in favor of personal savings accounts.
The article goes on to examine how many of these tea party candidates there are, and it's fairly surprising: it appears that there are around 130 running for the congress, although most of them are in safe Democratic districts which they are not likely to win. But it's fairly amazing that the Tea Party has that many people on ballots.
It also points out that the Senate candidates are likely hurting the party's bid to take control of the chamber while the House candidates are helping, which leads them to the conclusion that they are going to have an outsized influence compared to their size. They are going to take credit for the win, if they pull it off.
Here's how they will influence:
While there is no official Tea Party platform, candidates share a determination to repeal the health care legislation passed in March. They vow not only to permanently extend the tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush and to eliminate the estate tax, but also to replace the progressive income tax with a flat tax or a national sales tax. Several candidates advocate abolishing the Internal Revenue Service entirely.
Many have called for a balanced budget amendment. They oppose newly passed financial regulation, and oppose cap-and-trade of carbon emissions.
The candidates also promise to carry into office the Tea Party’s strict interpretation of the Constitution.
Paul Gosar, a dentist who defeated several other candidates, including the 2008 nominee, to win the primary in a Republican-leaning district in Arizona, told an interviewer that “adhering to the words of the founding fathers means putting the government role in the health care, the Department of Education, and yes, entitlements, all on the table for a constitutional examination.”
In a questionnaire for a Tea Party group, Steve Stivers, running for Congress in Ohio, said that only four departments — Defense, Justice, State and Treasury — perform “constitutional roles,” meaning “you could eliminate the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Interior, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy and others to return to a constitutionally pure government.”
Many candidates — Mr. Paul, in Kentucky, as well as many in the House races — have embraced a pledge to require Congress to indicate how any new legislation is authorized in the Constitution, and contend that the Constitution does not authorize many of the things the federal government does now. Republicans picked up this idea in their Pledge to America agenda.
And the article doesn't even discuss the social conservative agenda, which is huge and accounts for a major portion of these people's support and is at the heart of their worldview.
As for the practical effect, this will be seen as "the future" of the Republican party. It's where the energy is and they (the grown ups?) are not going to be able to contain that as they go into a presidential cycle. There is simply no doubt that they are putting the already radical GOP on steroids and for at least the next two years they will be driving the train.
Now, normally I might go along with the idea that they will eventually reveal themselves as kooks and be rejected or that they will fall on their own engorged hubris. But these aren't normal times. This country is in the midst of a much bigger economic crisis than we even realize from within the eye of the storm. And that's when radicals have an opening.
It's tempting to dismiss these people. But they are on the verge of taking over one of the two major political parties of the United States of America. That's real power. And everyone should be more concerned about that happening, in this environment, than they are.
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