And another spike when the orange man gets in office.

notice the spike when country experiences the worst recession in a lifetime and there are millions of families which lost their jobs and/or home...



imho, the fiscal conservatism was just the tip of the iceberg of a much larger dissatisfaction with the country's seemingly perpetual lurch to the left; and with how Republicans of the 90s and 2000s seemed neither able nor even willing to stop it.

at a time when a (still) popular Democratic president drags the country out of the great recession with trillions in spending and passes a healthcare reform which increases coverage for some groups and costs for others, making the deficit, and spending in general, the focal point of your attacks against him was simply the most politically expedient way of attacking his agenda.

furthermore, let's not forget that the tea party movement was initially funded and embraced by the conservative donor class, so it's not surprising that the priorities and topics of this movement reflect their interests. over time, the original agenda of fiscal conservatism proved to be politically dead in the water, and then the energy which had carried the tea party movement became attached to Trump's populism. so, long story short, my point is that this energy was never exclusively about fiscal conservatism, and always more about the future direction of the country in general.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Jan 29 2020 09:30am

Stopped reading here because it's absolutely ridiculous.

In 2008 we just came off the Bush wars, Bush tax cuts, the last Democratic president was Bill Clinton who specifically created a coalition of governors dedicated to bringing his party more towards conservatism, etc.

The massive dissatisfaction in the country due to 2008 wasn't due to the black guy, I was just being funny, it was due to a giant economic crash that came off 8 years of Republican wars and leadership with a larger cause being the right-wing spurred deregulation of the banks.

The tea party was a super racist response to a black guy getting in office, that was then taken over by the Kochs to push an economically conservative message.


In 2008 the country was NOT in a perpetual lurch to the left, it was lurching to the left in response to a crash caused by 40 years of consistent deregulation at the hands of conservatives and conservative corporate lobbying.

This post was edited by Thor123422 on Jan 29 2020 09:34am

That is not at all what moral foundation theory is about.

It divides morality into foundations of care / fairness / loyalty / authority / sanctity. Studies have demonstrated that liberals prioritize the first two, whereas conservatives apply all 5 to some degree. It's not surprising, then, that conservatives can understand liberal points on fairness and care whereas liberals struggle to understand conservative perspectives that include loyalty / authority / sanctity.

on social/cultural topics like civil rights, gay rights, diversity and equality, and immigration in particular, the country was lurching to the left even during the bush years. government spending had also increased substantially under bush due to his wars.

also note that the political success of the tea party mostly materialized between 2010 and 2014, in a post-bailout and post-obamacare world after several years of a Democrat in the WH. it did not come to form immediately after Obama's inauguration while the memories of the bush years were still super fresh.

there was a fire already brewing from Ron Paul's meme driven 2008 campaign, and Obama was gas to that fire that may or may not have burned out without him. Obama is undoubtedly the catalyst of the Tea Party's rise, what role racism played in that, as compared to more policy reaction motivations, is up to debate however.

Interesting. That's actually compatible with the point I was making: aside from some few symbolic victories for evangelicals, the Bush years were largely a dud for conservatives; and then, Obama came in and enabled the country's lurch to the left to really pick up pace.

in reality, imo, the tea party is a right winger inter-sectional politics melting pot. people who lost houses due to subprime mortgages as a result of banking deregulation (especially once the banks folded and got payouts), anti obamacare people, and racists. of course with venn diagram connections of racist-obamacare voters, holy trinity voters, etc.

but its important to note the tea party has grassroots, rather than systematic support from the GOP generally. i think it would be most accurate to say the party started from anger at Ron Paul consistently getting disenfranchised in GOP races, then the candidate of McCain being chosen and ultimately smashed by Obama moved it further. Then Obama enacting policies that are as far as Ron Paul as possible, coinciding with banking bailouts (and Koch brother backing financially) was the final tipping point.

kek