What has the tea party done right?

[cali]

clearly they've done something "right" to accrue so much influence over the republican party. Are there any lessons for the left to take away from their effective remolding of the repub party that we could translate to our influence on the democratic party?

[Shagbark Hickory]

1. Corporate sponsorship. n/t

[SoCalDem]

2. They conned the media into believing they were a larger force than they really are

and into downplaying the fact that their "grassroots" movement is anything BUT grassroots, and is more like a bowel movement..

[existentialist]

3. careful here

The Tea Party has influence within the Republican Party because it has ingested the rhetoric of the extreme right, taken it seriously and now insists on taking the party and country to the extreme right.

The direction they insist on going is not sustainable; if it does not destroy the Republican Party first, then it will eventually destroy both the United States and the Republican Party with it.

While the Tea Party might have done some things "right" and therefore be worth study, I do not think that they are worth emulation. They are a disaster--not least for themselves.

[JoePhilly]

4. They're a phony corporate funded astroturf group.

And they fully support the GOP's primary goal, which is to shut down the US government by any means possible.

That is the entire GOP agenda. The Tea Party has not remolded anything. This has always been the goal.

[TBF]

5. They are principled -

they are also greedy, stupid bigots, but they have their policies (no matter how ridiculous they are) and they stick to them.

If the left focused on economics and stood behind labor we could be just as strong. That would involve creating a labor party I think - which can't be advocated on this site - but that is the direction I'd go in. The tea party is putting their folks into office - we should be doing the same with strong labor candidates.

[ananda]

6. Here is what they did "right".

They gave the rightwing a great wedge to keep dividing us.

[Fumesucker]

7. The policies the Tea Party advocates increase wealth disparity..

Everything else is just noise, that's what gets them on the TV and gives them so much influence, what they want to do will make rich people richer and poor people poorer.

Follow.The.Money.

Always.

[joshcryer]

8. Got elected.

[JHB]

9. They went into the local and state party apparatus...

...and put themselves in positiond to influence candidate selection. Precinct Committeemen posts, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnHvrmjGnaU

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/10/1005359/-Thom-Hartmann-Reveals-Tea-Party’s-Winning-Secrets-–it-ain’t-rocket-science–?detail=hide

http://www.eagleforum.org/misc/brochures/precinct-committman.shtml

http://concordproject.org/2011/06/24/what-happened-at-rightonline/

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. They got Obama to negotiate and cave to them.