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The Tea Party is a joke.
In theory, it stands for traditional virtues and against unchecked government.
In practice, it elevates absurd charlatans that even GOP primary voters reject.
In The Weekly Standard, Matthew Continetti explains his notion of the values held dear by the typical "Tea Party voter".
The core of his argument?
"Limited government is surely an important feature of the Tea Party, but it is an idea that encompasses far more than economics. Limited government presupposes self-government, which presupposes a citizenry that possesses virtue and good character. When Tea Partiers recall the Founders, they summon images of wise and reflective men who instituted constitutional government to protect the liberties of the people against overweening factions. But they also summon images of an earlier age in which (they believe) virtues such as thrift, self-reliance, fidelity, piety, industry, and responsibility were valued...
What motivates the Tea Party is... a feeling that America has come unmoored... Self-reliant, frugal, industrious America could be turned... into a dependent, cynical, spendthrift, licentious America."
https://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/movement-explained_634410.html?page=1
Put that way, the Tea Party sounds indisputably sensible.
Who'd argue against wisdom, reflectiveness, thrift, self-reliance, fidelity, piety, industry, responsibility, frugality, or industriousness?
Do the politicians that the Tea Party elevates embody those qualities more than the various Republicans and Democrats who aren't affiliated with the Tea Party movement?
They do not.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...ty-movement/255530/?google_editors_picks=true
In theory, it stands for traditional virtues and against unchecked government.
In practice, it elevates absurd charlatans that even GOP primary voters reject.
In The Weekly Standard, Matthew Continetti explains his notion of the values held dear by the typical "Tea Party voter".
The core of his argument?
"Limited government is surely an important feature of the Tea Party, but it is an idea that encompasses far more than economics. Limited government presupposes self-government, which presupposes a citizenry that possesses virtue and good character. When Tea Partiers recall the Founders, they summon images of wise and reflective men who instituted constitutional government to protect the liberties of the people against overweening factions. But they also summon images of an earlier age in which (they believe) virtues such as thrift, self-reliance, fidelity, piety, industry, and responsibility were valued...
What motivates the Tea Party is... a feeling that America has come unmoored... Self-reliant, frugal, industrious America could be turned... into a dependent, cynical, spendthrift, licentious America."
https://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/movement-explained_634410.html?page=1
Put that way, the Tea Party sounds indisputably sensible.
Who'd argue against wisdom, reflectiveness, thrift, self-reliance, fidelity, piety, industry, responsibility, frugality, or industriousness?
Do the politicians that the Tea Party elevates embody those qualities more than the various Republicans and Democrats who aren't affiliated with the Tea Party movement?
They do not.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...ty-movement/255530/?google_editors_picks=true