The Tea Party's GOP Takeover: 5 Reasons We Need It To Happen

The Tea Party, a right-wing fringe group we thought was dying has instead been quietly regrouping and preparing to take over the US Republican Party. Again. Like the Terminator, you can't reason with them, they'll keep coming again and again till they finally win. And we need this to happen. This is why.

1. It will scare people

I'm fascinated by American politics in a rubber-necking-at-a-car-crash kind of way. Quite frankly it seems bonkers to me that people who come out with the crazy crap I've heard them spout get elected to office and put in charge of things, but it happens. Now that Eric Cantor has lost his primary and been replaced by David Brat, it seems that the Tea Party is resurgent again and preparing to claim more scalps in an effort to impose ideological purity on party members. Given the extreme nature of their supporters' beliefs and their control-freak tendencies, if this doesn't scare people into NOT giving the GOP (Grand Old Party, another name for the Republicans) the landslide victory the polls have apparently promised them for the 2014 midterm elections, I don't know what will.

 

The Tea Party. Imagine their fingers on the nuclear button.

2. It will put an end to the global conservative consensus

I've blogged about American politics from time to time but not very often,  mostly because I live in the UK and am not American at all. However, if they cough we catch a cold so it's wise to keep an eye on them. Besides, our own politicians are very influenced by them and there is currently a disturbing tendency to copy and paste their policies into law. If the crazies are allowed to take over the GOP, the lobbyists currently influencing Our Glorious Leaders will certainly lose traction. Nobody wants to be tarred with the loony brush, after all.

3. It will make the GOP reconsider their policies

When they lost the last presidential election, soul-searching ensued and the following conclusion was arrived at: the message is fine, it's the way we come across. Oh. Dear. Me. No, no, no. The policies are flippin' horrible, based on a quasi-religious belief in "The Free Market," a mythical creature that can self-correct with the Sword of Demand-side and the Shield of Supply-side. Yes indeed, as Governor Chris Christie said earlier this year, "We are for a free market society." But the market isn't free, Governor. How the hell will you make it work?

Since the plan is to do the same thing, but worse, but make it sound better (think "lipstick" and "creature that goes 'Oink!'"), I really can't see them winning the next election. Not that the opposition is much better. And America desperately needs a real opposition, not Tweedledum and Tweedledee. If they lose, I hope they'll sit down and honestly consider their polices and why they are ineffective, unworkable, and downright cruel.

4. It will bring about a sea change in US politics

Imagine the unthinkable: the GOP win the next election because everybody hates President Obama the Whistleblower-hunter General and Spook-in-Chief. Now imagine reality-avoidant religious fantasists running the military and the state surveillance apparatus. Now imagine the horror of US state politics being rolled out nationwide. If they DO get even two years in control of both Congress and the Senate with the current crop of suck-ups and nutters I can see the electorate coming to the conclusion that they're too damn crazy to be allowed to run the country (into the ground) for the full four years. At this point I hope the people run the lot of them out of town and start to actually think for themselves instead of cheering for Team Red and Team Blue, as they currently do.

Democrats V Republicans: Though they're often at each other's throats,
there's not much difference between them

5. It will give third parties a chance

I've often complained about there not being a free market... at all, but I've rarely mentioned the lack of competition in politics on my e-platforms. The fact is, for the most part, America is a two-party country. Our political sphere is a bit more fluid; UKIP swept the board in the last election and the Conservative (Tory) party governs the country in coalition with the Liberal Democrats. In America, there are only two prominent representatives that aren't members of the Big Two parties. He's the exception to the rule; you have to join either the Democrats or the Republicans if you want to have a chance of being elected to office given the cost of advertising to get the message out. Third parties are drowned in an ocean of adverts and they're not represented in the party political debates so few people know they exist.

The growing consensus between the two main parties in the States needs to be broken up by admitting some real competition. If the Republicans become too repugnant to vote for, people may switch to other parties, giving Pirates, Greens, and others a chance to get representatives elected to office.

Conclusion

So yeah, I'm glad that Cantor went down in the primaries. The current situation can't go on; there's no real choice any more. It's a political duopoly that needs to be challenged. While attempts are being made to challenge the status quo from the outside, don't be too surprised to see the Republican Party sort things out for us from the inside by conveniently (and messily) imploding. If Americans won't vote third party before the consequences of their apathy kick in, they sure as hell will afterwards.