The TEA Party is Officially Dead

[ll74]

The MAGA party continues to eat its way through the Republica party.

Does anyone have a eulogy they'd like to present?

The Tea Party Movement Is Dead​

Yesterday’s announcement of the abrupt closure and dissolution of FreedomWorks by its board of directors is the closest thing we will get to a formal date of death for the Tea Party movement, which in truth has been dead since Donald Trump descended the escalator at Trump Tower in June 2015.

 

[RobDownSouth]

The outgoing FreedomWorks president describes the no-win situation the organization was in:

After Trump took control of the conservative movement, Brandon said, a “huge gap” opened up between the libertarian principles of FreedomWorks leadership and the MAGA-style populism of its members. FreedomWorks leaders, for example, still believed in free trade, small government and a robust merit-based immigration system. Increasingly, however, those positions clashed with a Trump-aligned membership who called for tariffs on imported goods and a wall to keep immigrants out but were willing, in Brandon’s view, to remain silent as Trump’s administration added $8 trillion to the national debt…

“Our staff became divided into MAGA and Never Trump factions,” Brandon said in an internal document reviewed by POLITICO Magazine. It also impacted fundraising. “Now I think donors are saying, ‘What are you doing for Trump today?’” said Paul Beckner, a member of FreedomWorks’ board. “And we’re not for or against Trump. We’re for Trump if he’s doing what we agree with, and we’re against him if he’s not. And so I think we’ve seen an erosion of conservative donors.” Brandon, for his part, said some donors would contact him to complain that the organization was doing too much to help Trump, while others called to complain that they weren’t doing enough to help Trump. “It is an impossible position,” he said.

The TeaParty essentially accomplished nothing during its tortured existence.
It launched the careers of three feckless politicians: Little Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Rafael "Ted" Cruz.
That's it.

 

[RoryN]

"Trump killed the Tea Party" is an epitaph I can live with.

 

[ll74]

"Trump killed the Tea Party" is an epitaph I can live with.

I have to admit, when the TEA party started, I would not have predicted that Republicans would be the group that would bring them down.

 

[jomar]

“Our staff became divided into MAGA and Never Trump factions,”

Never imagined I’d see that division in the tea party.

 

[RobDownSouth]

“Our staff became divided into MAGA and Never Trump factions,”

Never imagined I’d see that division in the tea party.

Libertarianism and "stiggin' it to teh Libz" has significant overlap on social policies (see also: AJ) but are worlds apart on business policies (Trump's yuge use of tarriffs, for example).

 

[MajorRewrite]

 

[MajorRewrite]

Everything in this clip about the Tea Party applies double to the MAGAs. American Taliban.

 

[Rightguide]

The outgoing FreedomWorks president describes the no-win situation the organization was in:




The TeaParty essentially accomplished nothing during its tortured existence.
It launched the careers of three feckless politicians: Little Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Rafael "Ted" Cruz.
That's it.

It did expose the IRS as a politically oriented criminal organization.

 

[RandyRebecca]

The end of the Tea Party is something to be celebrated.

The Reaganites/Clintonites scare me a lot more than the MAGA lot do. The Reaganites and Tea Party were all about right-wing economics that have massively increased the gap between the rich and poor, massive tax cuts for the richest, crazy religious nonsense, union busting, mass immigration to hold down workers' wages and never-ending imperialist wars using our federal taxes. The Reagan administration also thought AIDS was a laugh as millions were dying. The Clinton administration, and the Democratic congress, brought in NAFTA and the outsourcing of American industrial jobs to places like China.

Yet ask the bourgeois liberals in the Democratic Party, and they'll say positive things about Reagan while calling Trump a huge threat. Trump doesn't really have any core principles beyond himself and the Trump brand. He is open to "deals" and all sorts of influences, and that's why the establishment don't trust him and don't want him in power.

 

[dmallord]

...Trump doesn't really have any core principles beyond himself and the Trump brand. He is open to "deals" and all sorts of influences, and that's why the establishment don't trust him and don't want him in power.

This is evident in the context of his Mar-a-Lago fundraiser, where he engaged with the oil/energy industry. His proposition was clear: 'Give a billion, and I'll ensure your energy drill rights in Alaska are restored on day one ...' or words to that effect.

They sat stunned as he openly pandered for their support. After all, it takes someone's money to run a campaign–why not money from other billionaires?

You are correct about Trump's lack of principles, and I'd add: narcissist, racist, and mentally ill. He should never again be near the White House.