I don’t think so, however we need to get beyond the term “tea party” which has become a term that has become marginalized and go back to traditional Reaganomics. We also need to support more electable candidates. Sadly, we have let the opposition to define us and we need to stay away from controversial “red meat’ issues .
by Michael Barone
Has the wind gone out of the sails of the small-government movement? Is the Tea Party going through a hangover?
You can find some evidence for these propositions. In Washington, Democrats such as former party chairman Howard Dean gleefully anticipate a government shutdown, and Sen. Charles Schumer thinks he can drive a wedge between Speaker John Boehner and “extremist” tea partiers.
In state capitals, some new Republican governors are getting hostile receptions to their plans for cutting spending and curtailing the power of public-employee unions.
In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich has only 30 percent approval, according to a Quinnipiac poll. Pennsylvania’s Tom Corbett, easily elected last November, has negative ratings as well.
And in the state that has made more headlines than any other this year, Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker is facing some headwinds. He did get the Republican legislature to pass limits on the bargaining powers of state-employee unions. And union dues aren’t going to be deducted from public employees’ next paychecks.
But the Democratic state senators’ tactic of leaving the state and the often violent protests at the state capitol have mobilized public-employee unions and their supporters.
A Polling Company poll conducted for Independent Women’s Voice showed 53 percent of voters with unfavorable feelings toward Walker and only 46 percent favorable. By a similar margin, voters sided with the public-employee unions over the governor in the recent controversy.
It should be noted that this poll has a small sample and a larger share of voters in union households (38 percent) than in the 2008 and 2010 Wisconsin exit polls (26 percent). And on issues of this kind, question wording can make a big difference in responses.
[…..]
Christie and Virginia governor Bob McDonnell, both elected in 2009, have won public acceptance of major spending cuts by making the alternatives and the facts clear.
Republicans in Wisconsin and other states, and Republican leaders in Washington, need to do the same. Given their druthers, voters oppose tax increases and spending cuts. But they’re responsive to the message that in these hard economic times, it’s not possible to have all good things.
They have seen that vast spending increases haven’t generated jobs, and they understand that tax increases can choke a sputtering economic recovery. Given the facts, they understand that public-employee unions inflate spending, reduce accountability, and operate as a mechanism for the involuntary transfer of taxpayer money to one political party.
The press won’t make that case. Republicans and tea partiers need to do it themselves
Read the rest: No more tea?
Tags: Michael Barone
