3rd Presidential debate: focuses on foreign policy, Monday Oct 22th 9:00 pm EST

[QUOTE=Real Men Wear Green]I could swear there was a time when the Tea Party was about taxes, government spending and the Constitution. They were making some points back then. Somewhere along the line they became simply another term for pure-right Republican.[/QUOTE]

You're right, it started out being about taxes and spending, which are things I can get behind. Now it's a bastion for Christian and far right wing nut jobs. I am a strong fiscal conservative but I just can't endorse a party with such ridiculous social ideas.

I was just thinking, if life were like professional wrestling, Ron Paul would've been "special guest moderator" for one of these debates. How awesome would that have been??? We need a Mick Foley commissioner type for next election cycle

[QUOTE=Real Men Wear Green]I could swear there was a time when the Tea Party was about taxes, government spending and the Constitution. They were making some points back then. Somewhere along the line they became simply another term for pure-right Republican.[/QUOTE]

The tea party was taken over by establishment republicans. They basically used the tea party name because of all the hype, but didn't maintain the original ideals. Idk exactly what the original ideals were but I'm pretty sure they weren't, "rape babies are Gods will." lmao.

[QUOTE=joe]The tea party was taken over by establishment republicans. They basically used the tea party name because of all the hype, but didn't maintain the original ideals. Idk exactly what the original ideals were but I'm pretty sure they weren't, "rape babies are Gods will." lmao.[/QUOTE]

Exactly and it wasn't exclusively GOP in the early stages. The GOP took it over, co-opted ideas and basically neutralized and absorbed them in many ways. Even the tea party people who get elected are more the strong right wing Christian types rather than the true fiscal conservatives the Tea Party started out backing.

[QUOTE=RedBlackAttack]
A. He looks and sounds like a presidential candidate you would create in a lab somewhere.
[/QUOTE]


Comedy. I was telling my GF the SAME EXACT thing, word for word. "In a lab"

[QUOTE=joe]The tea party was taken over by establishment republicans. They basically used the tea party name because of all the hype, but didn't maintain the original ideals. Idk exactly what the original ideals were but I'm pretty sure they weren't, "rape babies are Gods will." lmao.[/QUOTE]
The Tea Party Movement was never truly a grass roots organization. It was formulated and funded by Dick Armey and promoted right from the beginning by FoxNews and CNN.

And, Armey is just about as "establishment" as you can get. He has spent three decades as a very active Washington insider.

His organization, FreedomWorks, was directly responsible for many of the "spontaneous" rallies during the whole health care ordeal early in Obama's tenure.

Yes, the Tea Party has melded with some very far right extremist social ideals that weren't there in the beginning, but that just helps prove to me that it was never much more than a very strategic political movement whose ideals change with the seasons and those ideals are decided by the establishment.

Obviously, there are Tea Party members that are very serious, very angry citizens who do feel like their movement have been hijacked... But, what I would say to those people is it was never really your movement and manipulation by establishment Republicans was always a part of the Tea Party, right from its inception.