Friending Enemies

And the parting on the left
Is now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight
--The Who

Three years ago, the Republican Party rode the coat tails of the Tea Party to broad victory in the midterm elections. We noted at the time that this was classic 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' strategy, as old school Republicans needed to partner with Tea Party types in order to secure critical mass for defeating Democrats.

We also observed that this relationship would surely be temporary, as Tea Party ideals threaten the GOP establishment. The cracks have since been forming with old school efforts to co-opt Tea Party freshman have met with marginal success at best.

The relationship may have been officially severed this week with Rand Paul's filibuster. Alongside the Left, the Right is stepping up to deride RP and Tea Party ideals.

This is to be expected.

In the upcoming political cycle, the Tea Party threatens to overthrow the old guard GOP. The Tea Party is now the old guard's enemy rather than its friend.

Because liberals and conservative are relatively close together on the political landscape, it is likely that Democrats and old school Republicans will seek to join forces to destroy the Tea Party. They will portray the Tea Party as radical--which is surely is compared to traditional Democratic and Republican politics.

Because the Tea Party threatens big government of all stripes, it is the enemy of big government liberals and conservatives alike.