An article by Politico ran on Saturday, headlined “Conservatives target their fringe”. In it, it highlights how Tea Party supporters like RedState have finally begun eliminating the nut jobs that are sprinkled loosely through the movement, yet attract a dominant amount of coverage from the MSM.
Birthers. Truthers. Is Obama a US citizen? Was 9/11 a government conspiracy?
You see the signs, you see the posts. You laugh and move on. It’s no secret that while I respect the goals of the Tea Party, I’m largely indifferent. I wrote an op-ed last year regarding just that. With a full year under their belts, it’s good to see the Tea Party realizing the bad publicity ‘birthers’ bring to the table.
Additionally, when you have wack jobs like Tom Tancredo (quoted at the Tea Party Convention: Obama was elected because “we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country.”) it puts all Republicans in a bad light. As I said last year:
This is not to mention the ‘black sheep’ tea party members: birthers. Individuals believing that a conspiracy theory that President Obama is not a US born citizen, was born in Kenya, falsified his birth certificate, if in fact there ever was one, blah blah blah. Individuals who spout these beliefs not only bring a black eye to the Republican party and conservatives but also the tea party movement. Every time someone runs off at the mouth about wack-job theories they allow everyone, Republicans, conservatives, tea partiers, what have you, to be painted with the same brush, thereby demeaning the group collectively.
To consider it locally however, in the 5th District, there’s still a long ways to go for the Tea Party. In political circles here locally (meaning experienced campaign workers) the collective sense is Robert Hurt is running away with the nomination, given the trite coming from the other seven (or is it eight) candidates. While McPadden and Co play Tea Party Idol, playing to the crowd about how much of a ‘true’ conservative they area, Hurt seems content to rest back and wait for June 8th to come and go with an overwhelming victory. Take a recent 5th District debate, sponsored by the Lynchburg Tea Party, as reported by the Daily Progress in Charlottesville:
McKelvey said, “At some point we are going to have to throw the U.N. aside, not only for the security of this country but the security of the world. We need to do what we have to do to protect the rest of the world from terrorist nations such as Iran. Hard decisions, folks, but they will have to be made.”
Earlier, in response to a question about the No. 1 threat to national security, McKelvey got a round of cheers by saying, “The present administration is the biggest threat.”
Verga said the biggest threat is the Americans who voted the Obama administration into office. “That was political correctness gone awry,” Verga said. “There is a global jihad against the United States,” Verga said, “and we need to stand up to Iran with our allies and stop what they are doing.”
Seriously. These guys are candidates for the United States Congress. McKelvey calls the administration the biggest threat to national security, in essence, the entire administration is a bunch of traitors out to weaken and plot this country’s demise. Oh, and we’ll have to throw out the UN, demolish it. Verga’s stupidity, which Waldo Jaquith erupted about here, is beyond contempt. Disagree all you want with the results of an election, but calling Americans who voted for President Obama the biggest threat to national security? Idiot can now be spelled V-E-R-G-A.
In the 2nd, there was a small Tea Party gathering yesterday in Virginia Beach at Town Center. Many of the 2nd District candidates were on hand, with varying levels of success. But as I’ve mentioned before, the Tea Party is largely irrelevant in the 2nd District. There’s no huge outcry, any ‘he’s not a conservative!’ There’s contrasts by the candidates but by and large, with the number of military and independent voters in the 2nd district, the Tea Party won’t play any significant role in the primary on June 8th. That, my friends, is a good thing.
The Tea Party functions best when it’s holding our national leaders accountable. It functions worst when it attempts to anoint itself as conservative saviors and overseers, as it’s been attempting (and failing) in the 5th District.
