Tea Party brand losing market share. Back to Wingnut Classic. (Formula's the same though)
by digby
So the Tea Party is supposedly a dead letter. But the fact is that the Tea Party never existed. It was the "re-branding" of the right wing in the wake of Bush's ignominious failure. Now that brand is tarnished, but the mission will go on:
Tea party-aligned candidates may lack traction in GOP primaries, as Tuesday's results from North Carolina and Ohio suggest, but the movement is showing its power by shaping the 2014 campaign agenda and pushing Republicans to the right.
Many GOP incumbents and candidates backed by party leaders have embraced tea-party priorities, especially the call to repeal the 2010 health law and slash government spending. That has put those candidates in a stronger position to deflect challenges from the right than in the past two election cycles.
Arkansas Rep. Tom Cotton, who drew no challengers in the Senate GOP primary, opposed a farm bill loathed by tea-party conservatives but is popular in his rural state. Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston, a GOP Senate candidate, voted against a spending bill he helped to write.
In Ohio, a House Republican, one of dozens of state and federal legislators who turned back tea-party challenges in Tuesday's primary, had burnished his conservative credentials by voting against a deal to raise the federal debt limit.
The Senate GOP primary results in North Carolina Tuesday were widely seen as an important victory for party leaders and business allies in their effort to prevail over tea-party activists. In some 2010 and 2012 Senate races, tea party-aligned conservatives won GOP primaries, then lost general elections.
The whole point of this exercise is always to push the party to the right by hook or by crook. What they call themselves from one election to the other is irrelevant. Indeed "Tea Party" now sounds just a little outdated doesn't it? Isn't it something we associate with Obamacare?
The far right always finds new ways to market their product. They're now in the process of remaking themselves as the "mainstream". But the strong bitter taste of conservatism will never change.
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