“Well, listen, I think this has been the most misreported story of my two years’ tenure. We don’t have a tea party caucus to speak of in the House.”- Speaker John Boehner, ABC news, November 8, 2012
This quote was highlighted in the Tea Party Patriots newsletter, and brought a smile to my face.
While you were breaking your back on this election, often with no sleep, to help save this country – the GOP establishment was cooking up a scheme to blame you for their failures.
My partner and I were talking the other day, about the Tea Party. You see, it isn’t a real party at all, at least not yet. As the GOP struggles to define itself and a path forward, it is possible that a faction, under a Tea Party banner may become apparent and break away, but I don’t really see that happening. The GOP establishment is the Tea Party, and the Tea Party is the GOP establishment. No real way around that.
The Tea Party however, functions as a tool used by the GOP so that GOP leadership can appear as if it is unruly forces within their ranks who refuse to be a part of a democracy. A democracy requires compromise at the legislative level. So, the GOP doesn’t want any of that “C” word, and they can look like it is just some rowdy people that the GOP leadership doesn’t control.
Let’s get a grip. President Obama won the election because the GOP and Tea Party supported platform and agenda is not desired by a majority of Americans. A majority of Americans want the War on Women to stop; Immigration reform to happen; and government to do the things that Government should do like provide a safety net for the poorest among us.
Mitt Romney lot the election because he and the GOP party s a whole is out of step with a majority of the American people. For all the talk about Jobs and the Economy, the GOP can not demonstrate a record of active work on that front since 2008. So, the American people spoke on election day, and the majority believed Obama is better for the country moving forward. This majority wasn’t enormous, but it was significant enough that it was a very clear majority.
So, the GOP has a problem. Either, they start to govern, which requires compromise, or they continue their obstructionist Obama-hating ways that carried them over the past four years. So far, the Tea Party shows no signs of being open to that compromise and real governance.