The Tea Party Movement:
Winning Votes for Republicans and
Changing the Political System in the Process
Rachael Weirenga
Staff Writer
With decentralization,
networking, and millions
of conservative members,
the Tea Party movement is
changing the political rulebook.
It’s growing in popularity
and influence, and will be a
powerful force in restoring
constitutional principles of
limited government to the
Republican Party. The Tea
Party will draw votes for
Republicans this election cycle
and will restore conservative
values to the political sphere
this November and in years to
come.
From a handful of news
commentators voicing public
dissatisfaction with big
government under Bush’s
moderate-Republicanism
and under Obama’s constant
interference in the market, to a
huge movement with 100,000
protestors filling the streets
outside of the White House
during the recent 9/12 March
on Washington, D.C., the Tea
Party movement is fast gaining
muscle and momentum.
Yet the Tea Party remains
a leaderless, politically
unaffiliated, and radically
decentralized movement. At
first glance, this seems like a
source of weakness, but these
components are what make
the movement so influential.
Jacob Nieuwsma, chair of the
College Republicans’ board of
trustees, thinks the Tea Party’s
influence on the 2010 midterms
will be “off the charts.”
“No one is fully estimating
how much of a player [the
movement] will be,” he says.
As a leaderless organization
with no head to attack, the Tea
Party is both untraditional and
unstoppable. Tea Party Patriots,
the movement’s largest
membership organization,
has fifteen million supporters
spread across 2,800 local
chapters nationwide.
Not even the mainstream
media has managed to
suppress such a large number
of people, though they have
tried. “The media is searching
for anything to misconstrue
[the Tea Party], but they’re
really grasping at straws,” says
College Republicans’ event
coordinator Katherine Yelken.
“Because there is no centralized
leadership, they have to blame
the whole movement.” In the
same way that the media’s
vicious attack of Sarah Palin
made it lose credibility, the
media’s attack of the Tea Party
is a turn-off to many Americans
who know people involved in
the movement and know that
these people are not racist Nazis
who make posters comparing
Obama to Stalin. “The media
is portraying the Tea Party
as radical, anti-government,
anarchist. This is false, and it’s
widely known to be false, so this
has taken away credibility from
the media,” says Nieuwsma.
The media’s slander of the
movement only proves that
they recognize the Tea Party
as a threat to liberals’ big-
government agenda and as a
See “Tea Party,” p 8
See “Tea Party,” p 6
Drawn by Natalie Knudsen
Election 2010:
The Prospects for Life
Jordan Adams
Staff Writer
The political events of
the last two years portend
midterm elections of
momentous importance and
of unprecedented result. The
ruling-class establishment
on both sides of the political
divide has been significantly
undermined, with even veteran
politicians being driven from
office in their own party
primaries. On the Right, the Tea
Party movement has purged
“moderate” conservatives
from the Republican Party. An
internal revolution, then, has
been operating in preparation
for a full political revolution in
November. The current political
upheaval in general and the Tea
Party movement in particular,
however, are largely based
on economic matters and the
principles of the American
founding, leaving many people
asking: What are the prospects
for life?
Fortunately for the pro-life
movement and the larger social-
issue voting bloc, the majority
of Tea Party-backed candidates
are also socially conservative,
embracing traditional family
values and opposing abortion.
Pro-life political newcomers
on the Right have upended
former political heavyweights
in primaries across the country.
There have been at least five
major upsets in the Republican
Senate primaries and a number
of upsets in gubernatorial
races. Republicans are expected
to pick up seven seats in the
Senate. An additional six toss-
up races could go either way,
meaning the GOP could gain
up to 13 seats, which would
swing that body from majority
pro-choice to majority pro-life.
Critics from the Republican
establishment, however,
argue that the election of
Tea Party-backed candidates
minimizes the party’s chances
for commanding a majority in
the Senate by shifting several
races from solid pick-ups  to
toss-ups or even losses, which
would jeopardize pro-life
opportunities. But many Tea
Party upsets have also produced
candidates with commanding
leads over liberal opponents in
the polls and, more importantly
for many voters, have replaced
2
October 2010
pro-choice Republicans with
ardent defenders of life. For
example, the Alaska Republican
primary race saw eight-year,
pro-choice Republican Lisa
Murkowski upset by pro-lifer
Joe Miller, who literally came
out of nowhere a few weeks
before the election. Another
notable is recently defeated
Mike Castle of Delaware, who
is largely pro-choice.
In the House, Republicans
are expected to win a
slight majority after the
midterm elections, with an
overwhelming majority of their
representatives in line with
Tea Party principles. The next
Congress could therefore hold
the greatest number of strict
fiscal and social conservative
Republicans in the House since
the Reagan years. Furthermore,
the Senate will be primed for
a return to Republican control
in 2012, a control commanded
by Tea Party conservatism that
encompasses both fiscal and
social values in light of the
American founding.
When looking at the
prospects for the pro-life
movement in the upcoming
elections, one must note that
while the Tea Party promotes
and defends the principles
and values of the American
founding such as individual
See “Pro-Life,” p 6