> Why Election Day Will Determine The Tea Party's Legitimacy

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Why Election Day Will Determine The Tea Party?s Legitimacy

The Tea Party movement is something that can?t be talked about reasonably in 500 words. It needs a freaking book to explain the myriad of complexities and inter-relationships that the movement has with Glenn Beck, Breitbart, the ?mainstream media,? Ron Paul, the internet, Sarah Palin, the Obama administration, cable news, Congress, and especially their own splinter groups. People don?t give the movement its due, resorting to labeling them ?teabaggers? and getting on with their day. That?s a perfectly logical reaction to what is being reported as either an absurd collection of upset rich people or a damaging movement that will destabilize ?Amurica.?

But I won?t talk about the Tea Party movement. The banal truth is that the Tea Party movement is not either. Hell, it?s not even a party. It?s more of a label than anything else, as candidates with political savvy get behind the movement to sweep the Republican primaries all over the country. There are probably thousands or millions of people who devoutly believe in the Tea Party ideology, but they don?t matter. Those interrelationships above don?t matter. All that matters is Election Day.

We need to distinguish the movement from the politicians running in November because of it. Who knows what the politicians actually represent?from a pragmatic perspective, though, it?s a damn canny way to get a major segment of America?s voters behind you in an instant?say you?re a ?Tea Partier,? bam, you have toppled the ?mainstream? GOP candidate. The next challenge, and probably the one that will determine the legitimacy of the Tea Party movement, are the November midterms. These Tea Party candidates are facing off against the incumbent Democrats, for the most part?and it really comes down to the polls. You can?t spin a narrative of rebellion against Big Government if you lose the elections.

After November, we can start dredging up the history of the Tea Party movement. Depending on who wins or who loses, it will either spell the death knell for moderate conservatism as an actual force on the landscape, or it will prove Jon Stewart?s contention that there are tons more moderates who don?t speak out because they have ?shyt to do.?

It?s a pretty prosaic fact. We can talk about mosques and Glenn Beck and Shirley Sherrod all we want. The truth though is that that stuff isn?t important. Unless the United States will be toppled by a populist revolt?which, judging from some pundits, seems likely, but actually in fact is not going to happen at all ever?the way this will work is as follows: the winners in November will go to Washington, the losers will go home and sulk, a few people who voted for the losers will call bullshyt on the election, the pundits will begin their apocalyptic 2012 election coverage, and the rest of us will go back to work the next day. And so ends the least sensational article about the Tea Party ever written.

http://nyulocal.com/national/2010/09/21/tea-and-crazy/

The Tea Party will be as relevant and accountable as the Dems and Repubs.   Its a Washington thing.  Ho! Ho! Ho!
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That depends on whether the Tea Party voters hold them accountable.

Exactly.












 

  The teabaggers are legit since their cause is legit.