A Tea Toast to the New Year

...However, out of the ashes of the political conflagration left by the neoconservatives and big government conservatives of the Bush Administration rose the Tea Party movement, an independent, small government, populist, and some might say conservative minded political force. The great question as the year 2010 begins is how will the Tea Party movement reshape the American political landscape, or if it will really reshape it at all? New York Times columnist, and notably no friend to the Tea Partiers or conservatives in general, David Brooks believes that the political implications for the Tea Partiers will be important. He predicts a strong shakeup of the American political environment, with the momentum and energy on the Tea Party side. Similarly, Duke economics professor Michael Munger, writing at Reason Magazine, explores the possibility of the Tea Party movement catapulting the GOP to a repeat of 1994, when the unpopular Clinton health care reform plan and general political discontent allowed Republicans to take control of congress. In addition, though, Munger also envisions a path where the Tea Party movement goes the way of Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in1964, standing on principle, smashed at the polls, but in defeat laying the groundwork for a long term powerful political movement. Despite the points raised by Brooks and Munger, the answer to the future of the Tea Partiers is two pronged...read more