A fierce battle is being waged for the heart and soul of the political right within the United States. It peaked when Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava dropped out of the race for New York’s 23rd district after poll numbers revealed she was trailing behind David Hoffmann, a candidate for the Conservative Party, an ultra right-wing political faction. Scozzafava’s move was precipitated by activists within the “Tea Party” movement, a conservative activist group of about 3,000 people opposed to the policies of the Obama administration and what they perceive as lacklustre leadership on the part of moderate Republicans.
Although Hoffmann lost to Democrat Bill Owens, we should take this as a sign of things to come. In the 2010 elections, conservative activists plan to challenge over a dozen Republican House and Senate nominees who they perceive as being too moderate or liberal. This was exactly the reason Scozzafava dropped out of the race. She was perceived to be too liberal because she is pro-choice and supports gay marriage as well as some Obama policies. The Tea Party faction will also challenge Charlie Crist in Florida for endorsing Obama’s stimulus package. Everett Wilkinson, who heads the Florida Tea Party Patriots, told Politico that “We would lose if Charlie Crist got elected or if another person who doesn’t support our policies got elected.” The disconcerting aspect about the movement’s opposition to moderates is not only that it seems to suggest there is no place for moderates in the Republican Party, but in the whole of America itself. The word “liberal” has become pejorative, and usually marks someone as an enemy of the people, as someone who is anti-American in their support for abortion, gay marriage, and initiatives such as the stimulus package or government-run health care. The suggestion is that if you have any agreement with anything liberal, than you are not an American.
The Tea Party movement has been anything but civil. At the town hall meetings on health care reform organized by Democrats in August, the behaviour of Tea Party members was not only atrocious, but undemocratic in the sense that they were encouraged to disrupt free political assembly. A memo circulated by the website Tea Party Patriots encouraged supporters to “Yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early. Get him off his prepared script and agenda […] The Rep should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist agenda of Washington.” As a result of such encouragements, some town halls ended in fisticuffs, hospitalization, and arrests.
The point of these tactics is not so much to change the nature of the debate as much as to deny debate period. Extremists always put the conclusion before the premise: any discussion of health care or economic reform is socialist and therefore must be shut down. The message of this group is clear: no freedom of speech except for our group, no political assembly except for our group, no political power except for our group.
The other disturbing aspect is that this is not a grass-roots movement. In fact, many of the larger protests have been orchestrated by two right-wing lobby organizations, Americans For Prosperity and Freedom Works, who have chartered buses and given members millions of dollars. In one large protest held in Tampa, Florida, protesters stated that they had been encouraged to protest by the Hillsborough County Republican party and had even been given talking points. The same memo quoted earlier also gave Tea Party members tips on how to successfully control debates and take over the proceedings.
This is not a movement about changing the face of government, this is a movement about taking over government and ensuring no one else can change it.
