Will TEA Party doom GOP

Here's the sad part. This crap is not what the TEA Party was founded on. When Obama wins re-election, look no further then those willing to embrace the extremes of the Republican Party.

It’s not unusual for Republican presidential aspirants to shore up their conservative credentials by pledging to cut taxes, slash spending or increase defense funding. This year, however, the way to the hearts of GOP primary voters seems to be through the Quran.

Already, more than a half-dozen GOP hopefuls have publicly warned about the imposition of Islamic law, Shariah, in America. Herman Cain, the only Republican to have formally announced his candidacy, is vowing not to appoint Muslims to his Cabinet.

This is the increasingly radicalized GOP — the 2011 version. The GOP’s most extreme wing, the tea party, is setting the party’s political direction not just in Congress, but on the presidential campaign trail.

The further right Republican presidential hopefuls move, as the political truism goes, the harder it will be for the party’s eventual nominee to craft a political appeal that will attract independent voters at the center — where elections are won. In their efforts to capture the hearts of tea party followers, Republicans may be sowing the seeds of their own 2012 demise.

Indeed, as overtly conservative as the Republican Party has become in recent years, the tea party is pushing the GOP further to the right.

The movement’s members hold views far more radical than those of other conservatives. For example, 71 percent think President Barack Obama is “destroying the country,” versus 6 percent of non-tea party conservatives, according to recent polling by the University of Washington. Three-quarters of self-identified tea partiers surveyed believe the president’s policies are moving the country toward “socialism,” as opposed to 40 percent of “mainstream conservatives.” And tea partiers are more likely to believe that Obama was not born in America and is a practicing Muslim.

It is this extreme — and more politically vocal and active — wing of the party at which GOP presidential aspirants are increasingly aiming their appeals.

Just last month, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum blamed abortion for the alleged funding shortfalls in Social Security and likened Democratic support for entitlements to “drug dealing.” Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann called the tax code “a weapon of mass destruction.” Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who has pledged to reinstate the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, “apologized” for both his past support of cap-and-trade legislation and his “stupid” acceptance of the science of climate change — a view shared by virtually all top Republican candidates.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, meanwhile, has floated the long-discredited notion that health care reform will lead to “death panels.” In his dalliance with “birthers,” he said Obama’s worldview was shaped by his childhood in Kenya.

Taking a similar approach, Donald Trump, in an effort to inject his name into the primary fight, has begun openly speculating that Obama is not a U.S. citizen.

It seems there is virtually no conservative hot-button issue on which GOP presidential wannabes refuse to stake out an extreme position.

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It seems there is virtually no conservative hot-button issue on which GOP presidential wannabes refuse to stake out an extreme position.

Now I wonder why in hell they would want to do something like that ...... given the fact that there is absolutely, positively no potentially "extreme problems" whatsoever that the American populace is currrently facing or have to worry about facing in the next 50 years.

"If it ain't broke, .... it don't need fixing" .........
and the sooner those conservatives, GOPers and Tea Partiers figure that out ...... the better off America will be.

Aaron wrote:Here's the sad part. This crap is not what the TEA Party was founded on. When Obama wins re-election, look no further then those willing to embrace the extremes of the Republican Party.

I don't understand your concern. What I got out of the article is little more than the left's view of what the Tea Party Movement is about. That view is distorted in my opinion, because the left, the progressives, so to speak, fear the Tea Party and what it stands for.

I don't know the man neither do follow him. but how Sen. Rick Santorum is partrayed in Mr. Cohan's article is nothing short of being a nut. While I can't address the abortion statement, I can address the entitlement statement. He is correct in that entitlements are like dealing drugs. People have become dependant on entitlements. They simply cannot live without them. Think, I'm kidding just, mention making changes to social security and listen to the outcry. Mention modifying medicare or medicaid and you would think the poor are being put out to die and granny won't be able to get her meds. The outcry is truthfully irrational and at the sametime the very weapon progressives use to mantain their hold on power and control.

Rep. Michele Bachmann called the tax code “a weapon of mass destruction.” She is also correct in her accessment. The Tax Code is indeed a weapon of mass destruction. The IRS has done more damage to the US economy than any short of a nuclear atack could do. The code stifles job creation. It steals wealth from those who have earned it by their ambition and sweat. The Tax Code attacks the very reason businesses exist and people work. Eventually, both simply quit, because there is no longer reason to work. If you think I'm kidding about this take a moment and compare Detroit to Hiroshima today. Hiroshima is a thriving metropolis, Detroit is a cancer that is dying a slowing and agonizing death.

Mr. Cohan paints Herman Cain as an islamophobe because he would not appoint a muslim to his cabinet. I haven't looked up what Mr. Cain said yet, but I can tell you this, a boat load of what Mr. Cain is on target, especially about the economy and about personal liberty. Frankly, I don't give a tinkers hoot who he appoints and who he doesn't appoint to his cabinet. It seems to me the highest act of stupidity to deny a person with the leadership ability and ideas to turn this nation around simply because he won't appoint a muslim to his cabinet.

I could go on, but we'll end with one last comment regarding the article. The US Constitution requires that a person be a natural born US Citizen. I had to prove I was a US Citizen when I applied for my passport. The State Department wasn't about to just take my word for it. Mr. Obama is no better than me. I wouldn't mind seeing a certified copy of his birth certificate published on the web or in the paper. I just fail to understand the secrecy.

The Tea Party Movement isn't a party like the traditon republcians and democrats are. It is more of a belief than a party. It is a belief, I have the right to choose my own destiny without the government interferring. It is a beleif the US Constitution the US Constitution is the law of the land and that it applies to everyone equally. It is a belief, that liberty is the best of all policies and that govenment is a hinderance to liberty. It is a belief that those elected to office serve to defend liberty, not take it away. It is a belief that I should be able to keep what I earn. It is a belief, that benevolance, is not extorting money from the productive and giving to the unproductive. It is a belief that if you immigarte here, you assimilate into this nation and accept and live by it's law, not the other way around.

I would agree with you Cato if the TEA Party is what it originally started out to be bue sadly, that is simply no longer the case.

What started out as a rebellion against government waste and spending has been seized by many on the far right who believe that the average American's anger over fiscal issues includes social issues and as such, we now see those issues taking center stage.

The result is that the independent voter no longer sees the TEA Party as a viable alternative to either party.

What we see is nothing more then the fringe of the Republican Party and we're supposed to be happy because it offsets the fringe of the Democratic Party.

So, generally speaking, Independents have to choose between birther radicals who won't appoint a Muslim, will repeal DADT and save marriage vs socialist liberals intent on destroying America.

I'm sorry but I don't see either as a choice. Finally, you say this article is nothing more then the left's view of the TEA Party. I'm not the left, in fact I often get accused of being a card carrying member of the Republican party and I share the view put forth in this article so my question is, if the view is accurate, does it matter where it originates?

And finally, it now appears that even Libertarians are courting the far right.

Rand Paul slated for conservative conference

JUANA SUMMERS | 4/5/11 6:55 AM EDT

As both he and his father weigh presidential runs, Rand Paul has signed on to attend the Faith and Freedom Coalition's conference in Washington.

Michele Bachmann will also attend the gathering of social conservatives from June 3-4. Other invited speakers include Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee, according to the group's website.

Paul's inclusion among the list of presidential hopefuls comes with chatter about a White House bid feverishly building. Paul recently said the only decision he's made about 2012 is that "I won't run against my dad."

I don't think his dad ever stooped to the point that he felt like he had to appease the religious right in his run for the Presidency. It makes me wonder if the apple's strayed from the tree.