In the huge pile of efforts to analyze the Republican victory in the midterm elections, there has been a marked tendency to credit the success of the centrist Republican leadership in bringing the Tea Party under control. This observation was based in part on their ability to beat back some of the primary challenges to more establishment Republicans. However, it appears that the announcement of the Tea Party's demise may be a bit premature. President Obama's confrontational stance in issuing an executive order to implement some aspects of immigration reform has given the rabid right wing populists red meat to chew on.
After Obama’s Immigration Action, a Blast of Energy for the Tea Party
In all its fury and unanimity, the response from the right to President Obama’s decision to change immigration policy without the consent of Congress was the manifestation of a major transformation within the Tea Party.
What started five years ago as a groundswell of conservatives committed to curtailing the reach of the federal government, cutting the deficit and countering the Wall Street wing of the Republican Party has become a movement largely against immigration overhaul. The politicians, intellectual leaders and activists who consider themselves part of the Tea Party have redirected their energy from advocating fiscal austerity and small government to stopping any changes that would legitimize people who are here illegally, through granting them either citizenship or legal status.
Immigration has always been a classic populist issue, not just in the US, but in many other countries as well. It is presently fueling a variety of far right xenophobic parties across Europe. Raising the spectra of a foreign threat to the rights and privileges of the native citizens is always a sure fire approach to pushing the buttons of racism.
I have always had trouble getting a firm grasp on what the Tea Party is really about. Perhaps that is because it has multiple faces. It incorporates radical libertarians and social conservatives. These are two movements that have some major disagreements with each other. There certainly were some definite indications of astroturfing in the initial launch of a movement under the Tea Party banner. The Koch brothers have been major sources of financial support. However, their agenda is about some form of corporate libertarianism. They have sought to use the populist energy to drive their agenda of tax cuts and governmental austerity. However their Americans For Prosperity organization has supported the campaigns of centrist Republican Marco Rubio to promote a Republican version of immigration amnesty. The Kochs appear unlikely to support a radical anti-immigrant campaign.
The debate about immigration between Obama and the Republican leadership is focused mostly on constitutional issues about the separation of powers. They claim that they are open to some form of immigration reform with a path to citizenship, but this should only come about by an act of congress. Obama agrees that congressional legislation would be the most desirable course, but has despaired of that ever happening. The Tea Party zealots on the other hand are opposed to any form of amnesty for "illegal" immigrants. They would like to see all 11M of them deported and some form of impenetrable barrier placed on the southern border. Their hostility seems to be primarily focused on immigrants from Mexico and Central America although a substantial number of the undocumented immigrants are from Asia.
A primary focus for the Tea Party is to stop the Republican leadership from entering into any form of compromise with the Democrats on the issue.
At the top of their list of potential targets are politicians like Senator John McCain of Arizona, a proponent of an immigration overhaul. Their fantasy candidate: Sarah Palin, Mr. McCain’s former running mate, who now spends much of the year at her home in Scottsdale, Ariz. Two prominent conservative activists, who spoke anonymously to reveal private discussions, said leading Tea Party figures planned to reach out to Ms. Palin to see if she was interested in running against Mr. McCain.
The way they are organizing around the issue of immigration bears striking parallels to how the federal bailouts of financial institutions and the Affordable Care Act galvanized many of the same people in 2009 and 2010. The issues have shifted, but the common enemy has not: Mr. Obama.
The inherent racism that has always been an element in their rabid hatred on President Obama makes an easy connection to the racism inherent in the immigration issue.
The Tea Party has had intermittent success in ousting more establishment Republicans such as Eric Cantor from congress. However, they have replaced them with new members with no seniority. This gives them no control of the key leadership positions that translate into political clout. Their best available tactic is to intimidate the leadership with threats of primary challenges and create a stalemate within the party. What remains to be seen is if they are now cutting themselves off from their major corporate funding sources with a take no prisoners approach to immigration, is whether populist enthusiasm alone is sufficient to win primary elections.