Crossing Teas

Senator Joseph Paine: He can raise public opinion against us. If any part of this sticks...
James Taylor: Aah, he'll never get started. I'll make public opinion out there in five hours! I've done it all my life. I'll blacken this punk so that he'll--you just leave public opinion to me. Now, Joe, I think you'd better go back into the Senate and keep those senators lined up.
--Mr Smith Goes to Washington

During the early days of the Tea Party movement these pages observed that establishment Republicans would ride the coat tails of Tea Party types only so long. The Tea Party's core values of fiscal responsibility, limited government, and free markets share little in common with the mainstream GOP. Indeed, the big government roots of the Republican Party can be traced back to the American System platform upon which the party was built.

On the political landscape, Republicans are much closer to Democrats in their political actions.

Although mainstream Republicans have been distancing themselves from Tea Party types for a few years, we're now seeing a good example of true 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' strategy with respect to presidential candidates.

While neither Ted Cruz nor Donald Trump can be considered perfect reflections of Tea Party values (particularly Trump), their platforms certainly qualify as 'anti-establishment.' By definition, then, they are a threat to mainstream Republicans, who are speaking out in droves against Trump and Cruz. This is particularly the case with Cruz, who mainliners claim would be less likely to 'deal' and therefore to strike compromises compared to Trump. This assessment seems accurate to me.

That some establishment GOPers have said that they'd rather vote for a Democrat than Ted Cruz reveals much about how close the two political parties are in ideological terms. Mainline Republican repulsion to Cruz also suggests him as closest to the Tea Party concept among top polling presidential candidates to date.