The (Tea) Party Is Over

There are signs that America has grown weary of the fringe right hijacking of the national political discourse.

It began as a demonstration of outrage, over the official and corporate corruptions that led to the near-demise of the U.S. economy in 2008, complete with cute hats, and the appropriation of an iconic 1773 event of the American Revolution. Soon the Tea Party was co-opted by the opposition [Republican] party, and channeled into electoral politics, altering the nominal political landscape in the 2010 mid-term election. "Nominal" in the sense that, although more members of both houses of Congress had been Democrats before 2010, the practical political composition was only slightly more conservative following the election. Nominal, but certainly not insignificant. The Republican leadership in the House allowed Tea Partiers to control the flow of legislation, and thwart every White House initiative. What the rookies lacked in political acumen, they more than made up in vigorously pushing their cause - which had somehow morphed from rooting out corruption and waste, to running President Obama out of town on a rail. This strategic evolution had a kind of Rovian odor.

While paralyzing Congress, the Tea Party sought to blame the President for getting nothing done. So pleased with the success of their nihilistic efforts, the true believers failed to notice that some things did get done, and done well. But "regular" people not only did notice the improvement, they realized that even more would have been accomplished with more bipartisan pragmatism and less ideological posturing.

Blindly the Republican primary candidates trip over each other proving their conservative bonafides, flailing at one another for being "soft on socialism", or worse, "supporting big government", or worst of all, engaging in "class warfare." Despite robust coverage by all media outlets, participation has been declining as people realize these clowns aren't acting. Panic sets in at the thought that we could actually get stuck with one of them as President, should something happen to push the unemployment rate over 10%. Suddenly the "true believers" were sinking so fast in the polls, even Super PAC cash couldn't keep them afloat. Suddenly, Romney didn't seem that bad.

Or did he? The Maine caucus, held over the weekend, gave Romney a tepid victory over Ron Paul. Participation in the caucus was 2% - hardly inspiring. Romney bused in loads of college students, reportedly paying their registration fees, to assure a CPAC victory in Washington D.C. But Tea Party power was also in evidence at the conference, as keynote speaker Sarah Palin led the crowd in shouting down some Occupy disrupters by chanting "USA, USA." The grateful media took in the circus, and filled their column-inches.