NY Times front page article on demise of Tea Party has decided Florida Flavor-Tillison

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12/26/12, "N.Y. Times Article On Tea Party Demise Has A Decidedly Florida Flavor," Tom Tillison, Florida Political Press 

"From it’s very inception, there has been an ongoing quest to define the Tea Party.  A required first step for politicians and media in minimizing the greatest threat to the status quo this country has seen since the 1960’s.

There have also been plenty of individuals willing to assist in this endeavor.  Channeling their inner P.T. Barnum, they eagerly step forward and proclaim themselves figureheads of the movement.  Even still, the results have been hit and miss.

So much so that the media decided to ‘create’ it’s own definition of the Tea Party, with the politicians only too happy to play along since it served the same need.  The end result being a steady drumbeat of misplaced criticism that slowly eroded any positive image the movement may have had.

For those who are paying attention, there’s a process that plays itself out again and again in this country.  Media ‘giants’ that serve as the mouthpiece of the Progressive Left, more often than not originating with the N.Y. Times, put out a narrative that lo and behold slowly disseminates across the land.  Much like a ripple across a pond.

Marching orders if you will.  It’s a marvel to behold, as you see a story dropped in New York or Washington today and see the narrative picked up tomorrow in places like Kansas City and Santa Fe.  Even as they routinely outmaneuver the Republican Party, it’s not all that difficult to grasp what the Far Left is up to.

All of which brings us to a N.Y. Times article released on Christmas Day titled, Clout Diminished, Tea Party Turns to Narrower Issues.  An article that has an overwhelming Florida flavor to it.

We hear from Don Gaetz, president of the Florida Senate.  A Republican who apparently believes it’s a productive move to poke at a movement that, much like a wounded animal, has suffered a sizable defeat and is lying in wait licking its wounds.

“I think the Tea Party movement is to the Republicans in 2013 what the McGovernites were to the Democrats in 1971 and 1972,” said Gaetz. “They will cost Republicans seats in Congress and in state legislatures. But they will also help Republicans win seats.”

The reference to McGovernites an apparent suggestion that the Tea Party, beholden to a narrow conservative agenda, is pushing the GOP to take a hard right turn.

It never ceases to amaze me how so many Republicans lawmakers view the basic concept of fiscal responsibility and limited government as a radical, ultra conservative idea.  And I didn’t see very many spouting this theory in 2010 as they picked themselves up from the ash heap of utter defeat, climbed on the back of the Tea Party and rode it to electoral success.

Not that Gaetz wasn’t prompted by some of the more, how shall we say, ‘animated’ elements of the Tea Party.  Of which, the movement never seems to be in short supply of… and are easily found, much like moths fluttering about an outdoor light at night.

Here the N.Y. Times doesn’t disappoint.  In reality, the personalities profiled in the article are every bit a representation of the tea party, yet at the same time no more a representation than you or I.  It’s the long established practice of the media shopping for individuals that support the theme at hand, nothing more.

And that theme, certain to be carried to the hinterlands of America, is that the Tea Party is now diminished or weakened, that it accepts this fate and will now scurry off to the fringes, picking up the banner of “narrower issues” – see more limited in scope.  In a sense, it is now being written off as being incapable of affecting the more complicated issues of our time.

While that desire may eventually prove to be true, certainly the actions of a fair number who’ve pushed themselves to the forefront of the movement give reason to think as much, in reality, that determination has yet to be made.

The average everyday folks who’ve always been the strength behind the Tea Party will ultimately decide.  As of now, the movement is at a very precarious place and the future is uncertain.  Much like a wounded animal, it may very well succumb to it’s injuries and die, yet, until it does, we should all be reminded that 

there’s nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal." via Sharon Calvert, Co-Founder, Tampa Tea Party

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Even NY Times says the Tea Party "nearly captured control of the Republican Party:"

12/26/12, "Clout Diminished, Tea Party Turns to Narrower Issues," NY Times, Trip Gabriel

"The Tea Party might not be over, but it is increasingly clear that the election last month significantly weakened the once-surging movement, which nearly captured control of the Republican Party through a potent combination of populism and fury."...

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Many opportunists use the "Tea Party" name to make money and direct recruits back to the GOP establishment and groups like CPAC that destroyed this country:

Tea Party PAC 'TheTeaParty.net Leadership Fund' raised over $1 million, only gave $12,500 to candidates in 2012. PAC has same treas. as TheTeaParty.net

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2/14/11, "Rush: 'Tea party was under assault at CPAC'," World Net Daily, Drew Zahn

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The hideous "Tea Party Nation:"

 1/2/2010, "On the Backs of Tennessee's Middle Class (or, The Story Behind Tea Party Nation's Dishonest Beginnings)," Kevin Smith

"There’s a lot behind the formation of Tea Party Nation that needs to be understood by well-meaning activists for liberty and establishment political operatives alike. Why am I just now writing about this?  

It’s become clear to me that Judson and his for-profit Tea Party Nation Corporation are at the forefront of the GOP’s process of hijacking the tea party movement. What began as cries for true liberty and a public showing of frustration with the big government policies of both Democrats and Republicans has now been co-opted by mainstream Republican demagogues."...

 “This is the Cancer”

"Some parts of the tea party movement have been taken over by the national Republican establishment. Some are being courted. Still, a vast number of tea party groups in America are truly operating on the grass-roots level. The true tea partiers in America still believe in and strive to achieve limited government, individual liberty, and free markets. The last thing we desire is to replace big government Democrats with big government Republicans who are equally as intent on trampling our liberties and invading our rights for merely different reasons than the Democrats."...

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12/26/12, "The Tea Party Has Not Yet Begun to Fight," Breitbart, Joel B. Pollak

"If the Tea Party has been weakened by the November election, why are the mainstream media expending so much effort attacking it? 
 
The latest attempt is today’s front-page article by the New York Times, which alleges that the Tea Party is turning to “narrower” issues and suggests, none too subtly, that Congress should stop paying attention to it.
 
As proof, the Times offers the fact that Republican leaders “have embraced raising tax revenues in budget negotiations, repudiating a central tenet of the Tea Party.” It ignores the fact that Republican leaders could not muster the votes in the House to pass those proposals. 

To the great frustration of the mainstream media and the GOP establishment alike, the Tea Party continues to hold the line against tax hikes and new bailouts. It also won a significant victory with the recent passage of right-to-work legislation in Michigan.
 
These are not “narrower” issues: they are the most fundamental issues concerning the nation’s fiscal health and economic future. It is the Times and the liberal gentry that it serves who cling to narrow, often contrived issues such as the co-called “war on women” to maintain their political clout. 

The ailing, indebted Times hates the Tea Party 

precisely because it is serious about economic realities the left would prefer to deny."...

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NY Times' Tom Friedman at his wits' end suggests establishment GOP start a third party. Friedman may want Karl Rove in the new party since he was key in electing Obama twice:
 
12/22/12, "Send in the Clowns," NY Times, Tom Friedman, op ed

"Republican politicians today have a choice: either change your base by educating and leading G.O.P. voters back to the center-right from the far right, or start a new party that is more inclusive, focused on smaller but smarter government and market-based, fact-based solutions to our biggest problems."...

illustration NY Times, O. Munday

 

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