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The US 'Tea Party' initialized as a populist dissent against the concept of a government, disconnected from the people, imposing arbitrary regulations on the pe
by pnathan 15y ago
The US 'Tea Party' initialized as a populist dissent against the concept of a government, disconnected from the people, imposing arbitrary regulations on the people.
I don't know if I'd want to draw a deep connection between the Tea Party and the Arab Spring. I think, in general, the swing is towards populism right now. Obama's big wave came from his populist appeal.
pre-flame-shield Yes, I know that there was astroturfing. But I know a number of people who genuinely adhere to those ideas.
- nickpinkston 15y agoI think we can say that the Tea Party traces its lineage to Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty - which was totally NOT AstroTurf. Then Republicans warped everything, and we got the Tea Party - my dad is a firm believer in them. I know that...
- pnathan 15y agoAt the time when the Tea Party wave first hit here, it was very much not a mainstream Republican Party idea. The people that I knew who it drew in were typically Libertarian or Republicans dissatisfied with the Republican Party leadership.
- nickpinkston 15y agoYes, this is exactly what happened. Tea Party both drives and get driven in the national conversation. Unfortunately, all the best stuff about them: social liberal policies, banking reform, and non-interventionist foreign policy got driven out. Now it's all: "No taxes!", "Let 'em starve!", etc.