The Big Question: Is the Tea Party losing its grassroots appeal?

Some of the nation's top political commentators, legislators and intellectuals offer their insight into the biggest story burning up the blogosphere today.


Today's question:

As more Republicans openly embrace the Tea Party movement, will the movement begin to lose its grassroots appeal?


Hal Lewis, professor of Physics at UC Santa Barbara, said:

Of course that's its challenge---to broaden its appeal without losing the base (I wouldn't have called it grassroots---that term is overused). The Republican Party embraces (as, in fairness, does the pre-Obama Democratic Party) many principles that most people like (an emphasis on individual freedom from government intrusion).  The independent vote is now in full flow toward the Republicans, and their problem is to exploit this without overly antagonizing their own extremists. It can be done, as Scott Brown illustrated, but it will take skill. The extraordinary unanimity of the congressional Republicans is a measure of how completely the Administration has alienated a large fraction of the country by Chicago-style politics, apparently with no qualms whatever. Scratch the truly extreme left and the more-or-less unanimous black vote, and the field is open for the tea-partiers. It is an advantage that it is theirs to lose.

Peter Navarro, professor of economics and public policy at U.C. Irvine, said:

Populist political movements are a lot like guerilla wars. It’s way easier to attack something (in this case big government) than it is to build something (in this case a specific policy agenda to solve our problems). As more Republicans jump on the bandwagon, all they will be able to do is just say no.  Eventually, it all collapses without a specific agenda that actually gets us out of our mess.

Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, said:

In part, it depends on which Tea Party. The genuinely grassroots parts of it will remain independent. The people who've tried to hijack parts of it will move on. (Disclaimer: I'm a libertarian pragmatist, have been for about 40 years.)


John F. McManus, president of The John Birch Society, said:

If the Republican-firsters muscle their way into taking over elements of the Tea Party movement, its grassroots appeal will certainly be destroyed.  Attempts to accomplish this are already being reported in some locales.
 
What's occurring, and what's surely desired by GOP operatives, reminds me of the Gingrich-led Contract With America in 1994. Grassroots revulsion directed at the Clinton agenda spurred then-congressman Newt Gingrich to take control of that obvious turn toward the GOP in 1994. He forced his Contract With America on House incumbents and the many sure-to-be-elected candidates in a publicity stunt that amounted to very little substance. Then he parlayed his grandiose stunt into becoming Speaker of the House.
 
Lost in all the hoopla was the fact that the real Contract With America is the U.S. Constitution. Gingrich's highly publicized Contract was largely fluff that, even if enacted, would accomplish little to rein in government and reverse the nation's decline. Some of it would do great harm. Example: Term limits for members of Congress would almost always mean replacing poorly performing officials with similarly deficient newcomers. And it would mean having to get rid of some who should be kept in office. Also, the Contract's call for amending the Constitution to require a balanced budget essentially says there's something wrong with the Constitution, a falsehood. Congress can balance the budget any time it has the guts to do so and an amendment isn't needed.
 
That grassroots Americans are stirring is obvious. That party professionals would like to steer all these troubled Americans into their grasp is as certain as knowing the sun will rise in the east each day. Local leaders of the Tea Party, the Tenth Amendment movement, and other newly awakened and alarmed groups must be on guard. They will do themselves and their country a great service by demanding a return to the Constitution, not relying on the Republican or Democratic Parties.