The Factions of the Tea Party Movement -Can They Get Along?

This is related to this post I suppose Tea Party Movement Playing With Fire In New York Race

I ran across a good post at A Brief History…. See Tea Parties and NY 23 . I think he makes some good observations. He says in part the "Republicans are upset at the tea partiers in NY 23 for backing Hoffman but that will be a nice test. The election is only for one year so little is lost if the Democrat wins a split race. But, if Hoffman wins, they will have to start to take the movement seriously instead of trying to co-opt them. First, I think the tea parties are libertarian, not “right wing.” That’s what I’ve seen in Mission Viejo, where we have turned out 500+ on each occasion.
This will be a very important race, more so than Virginia or New Jersey which are old line pols running on both sides."

I am not sure exactly what he means by"co-opt". It seems if a Republican shows up at a event of theirs they appreciate it but then a large faction goes "they are trying to "Co-opt" which gets tiresome. He does state though that Tea Party folks are trying to gain control of the GOP in areas and as he says Which is the tail and which is the dog?

I think he is right that it is "libertarian" in its ethos. That is why , thought I agree with some of what they say and defend them, I am not in the tea bag movement. I am not a libertarian.

Regardless I have always thought the more interesting story here that rarely gets examined is not how the libertarian movement effects the GOP but what do Party Libertarians think about all this.

The Tea Party movement I expect has fault lines similar to what we see in the Libertarian movement to a certain degree. The big question if the TEA Party movement is to have a real effect is how they handle this diversity.

What can people disagree on with out being called a T-PINO. That is a "Tea Party in name only" person. For instance what if the famous Glen Reynolds of Instapundit ran for major office on the Tea Party ticket. He appears to be a big supporter. Would we see a replay of what happened in the GOP where Catholic and Christian pro lifers GOP folks threatened to bolt if a certain New York Mayor got elected or a pro-choice person was put on the ticket? What would happened?

How would the TEA Party movement handle a pro gay marriage, pro drug legalization, pro embryonic stem cell and abortion right person. How many people in the tea bag movement believe in these positions and how many oppose. I THINK but I am not sure that TEA Party movement trends social conservative. But I have also met many people that think this movement is great and that are involved that have the attitude the main problem with the GOP is all these damn Religious folks.

What happens after we get beyond issues dealing with regulation and taxes?

Would a Rep Flake of Arizona (that I suspect has positions close to TEA Party folks on almost all issues) be not welcome because he is a huge advocate of immigration reform. I do think the TEA bag movement is very anti immigration reform as we have seen proposed in the past. But maybe not. There might be a faction in their that takes the more traditional Libertarian viewpoint of it. How do they deal with these folks internally.

If were to take a poll how many people would think Huckabee and Jindal are FAUX conservative and how many think they represent Tea Party ideals.

In the end how they get along with each other when they are forced to confront these issues among themselves will tell us if this is a long term movement.

I have my doubts that a movement that in my observation is very quick to throw out the RINO term can do this. In fact in the comment section of the link I I note:

...........The thing is, they do need the organization that the GOP already has or they will wither on the vine the way the Reform Party did. You need officers, treasurers to file regular reports, esp with the new campaign finance laws.
I think they can get the financial & boots on the ground they need but they do have to get along and not automatically assume that ALL of us are RINO’s by virtue of being party members. Some of us wormed our way in back when for the same purpose, but have trouble working with the insurgents because they come off so stupid and inarticulate in meetings. They can’t seem to say what they want exactly, but maybe if we found some good candidates we’d figure it out together...........

That gets tiresome real quick. I am pretty big mainstream Conservative I think and being called a RINO because I have been active in the party (calling up folks, registering voters, attending meetings, walking out in the hot Louisiana humid afternoons going door to door for GOP folks- You know the unglamorous stuff) gets old. Espcilly when I notice a lot of these folks have been AWOL the last few years even with the most conservative of people running. That is just what I have experienced.

So we shall see. There is a good amount of legitimate anger in the TEA PARTY movement. But once you get passed "THROW THEM ALL OUT" as I hear can you govern.