There are three horrific facts about the bunch that's holding
the nation hostage in the partial government shutdown. One is that they are
either Tea Party members or affiliated with the party. Another is that they are
a minority even within the minority of GOP congresspersons. The other is that their
influence and numbers in the general population have plunged to the lowest
point since the Tea Party inception a few years back. The recent Gallup poll found that less than
one in four Americans now back the party. The poll also found that those who
fiercely oppose the Tea Party have leaped in numbers.
So just how many of the GOP congresspersons that are holding the
nation hostage on the budget and the deficit ceiling with their incessant,
screwy demands to cut or eliminate everything from the Affordable Care Act to
Head Start, actually are hard core Tea Party aligned? The best guess is we're
talking about 100. Of the 233 House Republicans these 100 congresspersons have
served three years or less. But even that inflated number is probably
misleading. There are about 40 House Republicans that reflexively voted against
their own caucus during the last congressional session. The presumption is that
they are Tea Party members or are party fellow travelers. This statistically
minuscule percentage of the overall congressional body then has managed to
wreak untold havoc on nearly every aspect of American life. How did that
happen?
When Tea Party-affiliated candidates scored big victories
and even upsets of GOP incumbents in some races in 2010 they had one mantra and
that was to shrink government, and shrink it fast. However, there was a darker
underside to the Tea Party surge and its appeal to legions. They had a visible
and loathed target to vent their antipathy toward, President Obama. The thought
of an African-American sitting in the White House was stomach wrenching too
many of them. For a while, more than a few protestors at Tea Party rallies
vented their spleen at Obama with outrageous, racist pictures, and posters of
him, and demeaning digs and taunts. To drive their racial loathing of him home
they proudly waved Confederate flags. Meanwhile,
millions of Americans cheered their war call, and voted for the candidates that
yelped it the loudest.
The message wasn't lost. Tea Party-backed congressional
members stalled every piece of legislation that might have put people back to
work, demanded draconian slashes in Medicare and Social Security, gummed up the
works on debt reduction talks between Obama and GOP House leaders, and wasted
congressional time and energy passing bills and amendments to kill health care
reform as well as education, health, social service and law enforcement programs
locally and nationally. Even before the current shutdown, Congress was at a
virtual stall for two years and public approval of Congress dropped to lows
that made used car salespersons look like public champions.
While the traditional GOP establishment leaders cringed
at the Tea Party antics and its congressional acolyte's silly obstructionism, they
still desperately needed them to have any chance of beating Obama in 2012. That
didn't happen. However, the 2014 midterm elections shapes up to be a titanic
battle for the GOP to hold onto the House and not lose any more ground in the
Senate. GOP leaders face a Catch 22. The Tea Party, though a shell of itself numbers
wise, still can make enough noise and in some districts turn out sufficient
numbers to make a difference in close contests. That's even more vital in swing
districts with Democratic congresspersons that are on shaky ground with
conservative voters.
The Gallup poll on the declining Tea Party fortunes also
noted that the Tea Party backer's vehemence toward the Democratic Party is
torrid. This presents yet another dilemma for the GOP. With nowhere else for
Tea Party adherents to go other than the GOP, this could open the gates wide
again for more challenges from Tea Party backed candidates to GOP incumbents in
2014 and beyond. This perpetually puts GOP congresspersons in the disastrous
position of having to continually look over their shoulders to see if there is
a Tea Party candidate waiting in the wings to challenge if they do not tow the
Tea Party line. That first and foremost must be to oppose anything that Obama
proposes, no matter how many Americans support it.
Despite the Tea Party decline, there are many Americans
that still think the idea of smaller government, caps on spending, and debt
reduction are noble and necessary goals worth fighting for. Millions of them
voted for failed GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney solely because they
bought into his promise to shrink government. This along with polls that show a
slender majority of Americans either are ambivalent toward or oppose the
Affordable Care Act, and even blame the Democrats for the shutdown, and a
healthy dose of political threats and blackmail, tells why a shrinking Tea Party
still holds the nation hostage.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He
is a frequent MSNBC contributor. He is an associate editor of New America
Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio
Network. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KTYM 1460 AM Radio
Los Angeles and KPFK-Radio and the Pacifica Network. Follow Earl Ofari
Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson
