Tea Party without Palin or Bachmann

Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann were big figures in the Tea Party.

What if they hadn't been around (McCain picks Pawlenty or Lieberman in 2008, Bachmann loses her congressional bid to former Senator Dean Barkley) when the Tea Party popped up in 2009?


Who would fill the niche? Without Palin and Bachmann's social conservative/populist appeals, would it have remained fiscally focused?
 
I can count on one hand the number of Tea Partiers in Congress who actually care about fiscal conservatism and have the voting records to prove it. For the others it was always an opportunistic ploy to ride the Obama backlash into office on standard GOP orthodoxy. So no, I don't believe either Pain or Bachmann were integral to what the Tea Party ultimately became because it was always a sham.
 
I think it's safe to say that neither of those voices in the movement were really innovators of the positions they pushed. People with money wanted those positions forwarded so they found some spokespersons. Sarah Palin did not invent conservative populism any more than Tony the Tiger invented Frosted Flakes. But unlike Tony, Sarah is replaceable as a spokesperson. And given how flawed both she and Bachmann are, their replacements might even do a better job.

If you're wondering how things look in the movement without its most prominent female members, some interesting side effects are possible. From a left perspective the Tea Party looks a little less like a troll move, as they're not as effectively able to take pot-shots at the evolving modern woman. It might suppress Republican women candidacies a little more without a more prominent model to aspire to.

On the margins, losing the veneer of being a "female-friendly" organization might cost some independent votes here and there.
 
I think it's safe to say that neither of those voices in the movement were really innovators of the positions they pushed. People with money wanted those positions forwarded so they found some spokespersons. Sarah Palin did not invent conservative populism any more than Tony the Tiger invented Frosted Flakes. But unlike Tony, Sarah is replaceable as a spokesperson. And given how flawed both she and Bachmann are, their replacements might even do a better job.

If you're wondering how things look in the movement without its most prominent female members, some interesting side effects are possible. From a left perspective the Tea Party looks a little less like a troll move, as they're not as effectively able to take pot-shots at the evolving modern woman. It might suppress Republican women candidacies a little more without a more prominent model to aspire to.

On the margins, losing the veneer of being a "female-friendly" organization might cost some independent votes here and there.
Eh, I think you're overstating this in terms of female involvement. Some of the most radical parts of the Party tend to be the women's organizations, have been since the 1950s, and women were regularly elected to power on Republican tickets long before any non-Alaskan knew about Sarah Palin.
 
Eh, I think you're overstating this in terms of female involvement. Some of the most radical parts of the Party tend to be the women's organizations, have been since the 1950s, and women were regularly elected to power on Republican tickets long before any non-Alaskan knew about Sarah Palin.

"Might suppress women candidacies a little" isn't really overstating, is it?
 

MrP

Banned
Without Palin and Bachmann's social conservative/populist appeals, would it have remained fiscally focused?
The Tea Party was never fiscally focused. It was an astroturf movement designed to fire up the radical wing of the GOP and, in hindsight, turned out to be a test run for Trumpism.
 
The Tea Party was never fiscally focused. It was an astroturf movement designed to fire up the radical wing of the GOP and, in hindsight, turned out to be a test run for Trumpism.

The Ron Paul crowd did hang around for a bit, and there were even articles about fights over the "soul of the Tea Party" between Paulites and Palinites. But you're right, it was never really their Tea Party.
 
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