Rebellious Tea Party aims to remake US Republicans (Feature)

By Chris Cermak Oct 20, 2010, 3:27 GMT

Dover, Delaware - The Republican Party is being forced to deal with a rebellion as they head into US congressional elections this November, grappling with a massive grassroots movement that has energized conservative voters and infiltrated the party's ranks.

The 'Tea Party,' a loosely organized, populist conservative movement, has become a force to be reckoned with in US politics. It is prompting a major remake of the Republican Party and leading top conservatives like former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to claim its leadership mantle.

Named after the 1773 Boston Tea Party rebellion of American revolutionaries against a British tax on tea, the movement has struck a chord with conservative voters angry at an ongoing weak economy and what they consider the socialist, big-spending, big-government policies of US President Barack Obama.

They are a disparate bunch, made up of hundreds of local groups around the country that are only loosely affiliated with national Tea Party organizations. Some rallies have attracted the country's most far-right elements, comparing Obama to Hitler and Stalin, yet many have recently fought to shed the group's more extreme reputation.

'You've been ridiculed, you've been mocked,' Palin told a Tea Party rally in Nevada on Monday. 'Still, you didn't let big government loving professional politicians ... tell you to sit down and shut up.'

What unites the Tea Party is a simple message of drastically smaller government, low taxes and low spending. They differentiate themselves from mainstream Republicans by focusing little on social issues dear to other conservatives, such as abortion or gay marriage.

Supporters are anti-establishment, punishing candidates they feel have become Washington insiders and career politicians. Their ability to topple more established politicians in Republican primaries this year has shocked political pundits in states ranging from Utah and Colorado to New York and Delaware.

'I like to say I have 'electile' dysfunction,' said one Tea Party sympathizer in Delaware's capital Dover, who refused to be named. Washington politicians of both parties 'take our tax dollars and they do so many things with them that don't make sense to the average man.'

The Tea Party is also uncompromising. Conservatives joined the movement because they believed Republicans strayed from their core principles. Former president George W Bush is viewed as a big spender for pushing through domestic policies that caused the federal deficit to skyrocket.

While the movement may have an anti-Obama streak, it is moderate Republicans that have suffered most, dubbed 'Republicans in Name Only' by Tea Party supporters.

This has left some Republicans furious, as the purge of moderates, especially in states with more centrist electorates, may cost the party a takeover of the US Congress in the November 2 elections.

'This is cannibalization of your own,' said one manager of a Republican Senate campaign, who requested anonymity to speak openly about inner-party politics.

'While the Tea Party espouses some very good principles, they are looking for these utopian candidates,' he added. 'You can't govern to the perfect. You can't govern to the ideal. You have to govern to the possible.'

Republicans point to Delaware, a moderate to left-leaning state, as a prime example. Mike Castle, a popular former Republican governor, was considered likely to win the Senate election against Democratic candidate Chris Coons.

Yet Castle was defeated in the Republican primary by Christine O'Donnell, an inexperienced, ultra conservative, who has been mocked by the national media for statements about alleged ties to witchcraft in high school. She trails Coons by nearly 20 points in opinion polls, likely robbing Republicans of the chance to capture a seat once held by Vice President Joe Biden.

David Wilson, a professor of political science at the University of Delaware, said O'Donnell won the Republican nomination because the conservative base was more energized than its moderates.

Castle was 'a moderate to liberal Republican,' Wilson said. 'What Christine O'Donnell ran on was that he was too close to President Obama.'

For the Tea Party, electability matters little. Its members consider themselves independent from either political party. They say they nominate true conservatives, even if they have less chance of winning the general election.

Castle drew support from both sides of the political aisle. Thomas Smith, owner of a general store in Dover, said he was 'a registered Democrat, but I always voted for Mike Castle.' Such cross-party appeal has doomed moderates like Castle in this year's Republican primaries.

This dynamic could play into Obama's hands in the long run, according to some political pundits. Mid-term elections typically suffer from a lack of interest, with only about one third of the electorate voting.

The low turnout allows an energized minority group like the Tea Party to have a major impact. But polls show that only about one- fifth of voters identify themselves with the movement - not nearly enough for Republicans to take back the White House in 2012.

'Republicans run the real risk of marginalizing themselves for a presidential election,' said Thomas Mann of the Washington-based Brookings Institution. 'If all of their candidates go running after the Tea Party, they will find they're appealing to a distinct minority of the American public.'

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