Hey TRX. A question.
Yogi Berra should be able to answer this question. Yes?
I prefer to say TEApartiers. Personally, I enjoy the phrase Teapauliers.
But I understand how why others refer to the efforts.
Honestly, mine is only an opinion and I dont know the 'rules'. I am biased by my views and known activists.
On occasion, I have been asked if I am Right libertarian or Left libertarian, and for many years, I did not understand the question as I do now.
Seriously, I think many or most TEA activists are conservative, libertarian or both.
I think it is a bit like asking if Dems are liberal or moderate or like govt spending.
I wonder if Tea party activists are more concerned with border and immigration issues than I would hope. I understand many are religious and protestant, but I dont know their views on church & state.
I find it interesting that a good number would have adopted Senator Brown of MA.
There are tensions I think in most political groupings. I realize there are many republicans, some quite conservative, who wish to rally Tea activists. If I guess who is supported I would include Dr Paul, Sarah Palin, Dick Armey, and a number of others. I would hope better candidates could also be found.
If you may want to know more, I would PM to you.
Interstingly to me, Huckabee said he would skip CPAC (Conservative group) because it was leaning too libertarian. Their top 2 preferences this year were Dr Paul and Mitt Romney. I think many of them still wish for a rallying candidate. Though, I think pure ideology would make it difficult to find a rallying candidate.
For fun:
http://www.lp.org/poll/Feb 23, 2010
Which expensive government project do you support the most?
The trillion-dollar wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
9% (73 votes)
The War on Drugs
2% (18 votes)
Building border fences
22% (192 votes)
Social Security and Medicare
21% (177 votes)
None of the above. Cut spending on all of them.
46% (396 votes)
http://www.lp.org/news/press-releases/libertarians-criticize-cpac-conservatives
It's interesting that conservatives only notice "big government" when it's something their political enemies want. When conservatives want it, apparently it doesn't count.
If a conservative wants a trillion-dollar foreign war, that doesn't count.
If a conservative wants a 700-billion-dollar bank bailout, that doesn't count.
If a conservative wants to spend billions fighting a needless and destructive War on Drugs, that doesn't count.
If a conservative wants to spend billions building border fences, that doesn't count.
If a conservative wants to "protect" the huge, unjust, and terribly inefficient Social Security and Medicare programs, that doesn't count.
If a conservative wants billions in farm subsidies, that doesn't count.
It's truly amazing how many things "don't count."
...
Ronald Reagan, often praised as an icon of conservatism, signed massive spending bills that made his the biggest-spending administration (as a percentage of GDP) since World War II.
I applaud that release and wonder how it would play with a number of big donors to the LP.