The Tea Party as a Populist Right-Wing: A New Devil in History?

(Lawrence Rosenthal and Christine Trost, and William Daivs Easton)

A REVIEW ESSAY
Sources for Review:

Rosenthal, Lawrence and Christine Trost.2012.Steep: The Precipitous Rise of the Tea party.

California: University of California Press

Eaton, William Davis.2010.Liberal Betrayal of America: How the Student Riot of the Sixties

Generated a Civil War to Destroy a Great Nation. California: University of California Press.

Supplementary Sources:

Williamson, Vanessa, Theda Skocpol, and John Coggin.2011. The Tea Party and the Remaking

of Republican Conservatism. Perspectives on Politics, Vol.8 No.1,25-42.

Langenbacher, Nora and Britta Schellenberg (ed.). 2011. Is Europe on the “Right” Path: Right-

Wing Extremism and Right-Wing Populism in Europe. Berlin: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

Rydgren, Jens.2007.The Sociology of the Radical Right. Annual Review of Sociology, 241-262.

Note: I also used some of the content of my 2nd book review draft.

REVIEW ESSAY

The Cold War ended in the 1990’s with the triumph of the United States and liberal democracy

over the Soviet Bloc and other countries that subscribe to Communism. Tagged as one of the

“devils in history” by Vladimir Tismaneanu, Communism was never thought of to be on the

decline by states that do and do not enforce such political economic system in their country. It

posed a legitimate threat to capitalism and liberal democracy as economic and political aspects

respectively of the world order the United States uphold and preserve. Only at the end of the
Cold War did everyone fully recognize the continued supremacy and legitimate dominance of

the United States in the worldwide balance of power.

Today however, there is a growing strength of right-wing political movements in various

countries. This review essay focuses on the United States Tea Party, a right-wing populist

movement that has recently emerged in the country. Populist right-wing formations are usually

clustered with other right-wing parties which make them hard to define and distinguish. Before

proceeding with the essay, we must first lay out the basic foundation and definition of these

concepts. Rydgren’s The Sociology of the Radical Right does so by characterizing the populist

right-wing as,

“a party where not only elites but other groups as well (immigrants, ethnic minorities) are

excluded from the “pure people”. A party that uses the antiestablishment strategy tries to

construct an image of itself as in opposition to the political class, while trying to actively

not to appear antidemocratic.” (Rydgren, 2007: 245)

This definition serves as the basic unity of the authors in tackling the Tea Party as they will be

cited in the review essay.

The Tea Party in the United States was chosen as the focus of this review essay because it is one

of the current nascent populist right-wing parties formed. Founded in 2008, just a few weeks

after Barack Obama was proclaimed President of the United States, people have gathered in

order to express distaste in his proposed policies and programs. In The Tea Party and the

Remaking of Republican Conservatism, Williamson, Skocpol, and Coggin write about its

formation:
 “To be sure, rank-and-file Republicans remained strongly opposed to the new president

and his policy initiatives. Hostility to the Obama economic agenda was already evident in

the first weeks of the new administration… In mid-February, an opportunity presented

itself. From the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CNBC report Rick Santelli

burst into a tirade against the Obama administration’s nascent mortgage plan… To

protest giving help to “subsidize the losers’ mortgages,” Santelli invited America’s

“capitalists” to a “Chicago Tea Party”. (This term began to become viral around the web

and in social networking sites) Seasoned activists also took the chance to organize

mobilizations under the banner of the “Tea Party”… Initial protests on February 27 drew

small crowds in dozens of cities across the country… By 2010, self-declared Tea Party

activists and supporters were exercising significant clout in dozens of electoral races

nationwide – first in Republican primaries, and then in the general election contests of

November.” (Williamson, Skocpol, and Coggin, 2011: 26)

The rationale and objective of this review essay is to examine how different authors perceive the

Tea Party as a right-wing populist group or movement in the United States. It seeks to look at

different angles and areas of focus to come up with a big picture or a deeper understanding of the

Tea Party. It also aims to answer to main problems or points of inquiry: 1)How similar is the Tea

Party, as written by the various authors, perceived to other right-wing parties, and 2) Does the

Tea Party pose a threat to the legitimacy of the current government and the American liberal

democratic political system?

The main references the review essay will explore will be Steep: The Precipitous Rise of the Tea

Party (Rosenthal and Trost, 2012) and Liberal Betrayal of America and the Tea Party Firestorm:

How the Student Riots of the Sixties Generated a Civil War to Destroy a Great Nation (Eaton,
2010). While both books focus on the Tea Party, the three supplementary materials provide

additional knowledge and organization for the flow of the whole review essay. These are: Is

Europe on the Right Path: Right-wing Extremism and Populism in Europe (Langenbacher and

Schellenberg, 2011), The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism (Williamson,

Skocpol, and Coggin, 2011), and Sociology of the Radical Right (Rydgren, 2007).

The next question then revolves around the significance of the sources. Why are these books

chosen for review and why are they worthy of academic attention? The first basis for choosing

these books from a wide array of options dealing with the Tea Party is the credential of the

author(s). Steep editor Christine Trost is the associate director of UC Berkley’s Institute for the

Study of Societal Issues and the program director of Center for Right-Wing Studies. Lawrence

Rosenthal, her co-editor, is the executive director and lead researcher of the Center for Right-

Wing Studies. The chapter authors in the book are also members the academe coming from

different universities. On the other hand, the other book’s author Willaim Davis Eaton, is also a

professor. On the other hand, the books for review have different aims: Steep seeks to inform

while Liberal Betrayal of America and the Tea Party Firestorm takes a stand on the growing

support gathered by the Tea Party. Such contrasting objectives presented by the two books are

interesting given the common academic backgrounds of the authors.

As for the supplementary sources, Langenbacher and Schellenberg’s books provides a

framework for the discussion and directs or steers it towards taking a stand or providing a

response for the two posited main questions. Williamson, Skocpol, and Coggin on the other hand

provide the history and additional information on the topic at hand in order to aid the two main

books for review. Rydgren’s book ensures the leveling off of understanding on the part of the
author and reader of the review essay and delimits the concepts or sets the parameters of the

discussion.

The essay will be divided into five parts (excluding the introduction). It will first tackle the

contents of the books and how they are divided. The essay would then lay out the main

arguments of the authors following the framework used by Langenbacher and Schellenberg in

discussing the right-wing parties. The third part involves the comparing and contrasting of the

focus and writing styles of the authors for the book given their backgrounds. Further analysis of

the theoretical and political debates would then be made in order to weigh what the authors have

to say on the subject and to explore their points of unity and contention. Finally, the book comes

to a conclusion by allowing the authors to respond to the two primary queries in the essay

involving the similarity of the Tea Party with other populist right-wing groups and the possibility

of the Tea Party to be considered as a threat to American liberal democracy.

Steep: The Precipitous Rise of the Tea Party contains eight chapters. The introduction and the

first chapter both give a background and a brief history of the Tea Party movement. Although it

has only been around for a very short time, it has attracted immense attention from those who are

inside and outside the political arena. According to the authors, no one predicted the emergence

of such group in America although hints of people gathering embodying the unity of the Tea

Party have become evident as early as 2008. People who have joined together were identified as

those who advocate for the benefit or profit of corporations at the expense of the present public

goods. The membership of the movement, which had its first national protest in late February

2009, has greatly expanded and is more likely to be white, middle-aged, conservative, and

wealthy.
The second chapter discusses the reframing of populist sentiments in the movement. At first, the

Tea Party’s calls were said to be misunderstood and were seen as absurd by the public despite all

the noise and news they have been creating. This has gone on to the point of them being called as

“extremists” by the American citizens despite their only unity of reducing government taxes and

expenditures. Rosenthal and Trost then compare the Tea Party to other rightist movements such

as the Christian right and the Patriot movement in the US, Vigrid in Norway, and Autonome

Nationalisten in Germany. Upon closer examination, what were similar to each of the parties are

their inclination to racial discrimination, conservatism, anti-communist stand, and nationalism.

Chapter three elaborates on the political stand of the movement including a look on the six Tea

Party organizations. Following the discussion on the previous chapter, those who were associated

with the party think that America is gradually being run by people who want to steer it towards

the cliff that is socialism. Others declare that their country is being taken away from them. The

authors have seen the same in other rightist political groups in the sense that the members of

these groups assert that their country is turning to be a country populated and run by “outsiders”.

This realization leads to a greater rallying call to action and vast mobilizations conducted by

those who belong to those groups. As to how they are able to mobilize a great number of people,

chapter four tackles the movement’s ability to employ grassroots organizing, an aspect shared by

all right-wing groups, to gather people.

The fifth and six chapters focus on the question of the Tea Party being a “White Citizenship”

movement and the future of the issue of race in those movements. As already discussed in the

earlier chapters, the aspect of racism is one that is commonly shared by all right-wing parties.

Both chapters reiterate that although the party does not primarily dwell on the topic of race, it

becomes a crucial factor to their stands and agenda given that it is one of the observable
characteristics present in their country today especially in the age of globalization. This is

followed by the seventh chapter discussing the future of women in leading or representing the

party during political gatherings, functions, and other activities in the arena.

The last two chapters discuss the future of the Tea Party, and other right-wing parties or

movements, in politics. The Republican Party is said to be extending an invitation to the

movement as a part of their mass supporters especially in the upcoming elections. The authors

are skeptical about this incident since the characteristics of right-wing parties or groups since

they are not definitely aligned with either republicans or democrats in the United States political

arena, much more with the other rightists to their political parties in their respective states. The

Tea Party will have a hard time making friends or allies with the Republican Party given that

they would not agree on their stands in particular issues. They are at best described as

adversaries, “frenemies”, or even tactical allies, used at each other’s utility or convenience in

forwarding certain political agenda to gain legitimacy from the people. (Reyes, 2013)

On the other hand, Liberal Betrayal of America and the Tea Party Firestorm: How the Student

Riots of the Sixties Generated a Civil War to Destroy a Great Nation is divided into seven

chapters which is further subdivided into parts and themes. The first chapter is entitled ‘A

Declaration of War’ that is further broken down to two parts and other themes that tackle the

militant student uprising against the business-like management of education made by the multi-

campus University of California in the 1960’s. It discusses the development and strengthening of

the culture of dissent and questioning of authority that started from the said student uprising.

This led to more social movements such as that which concerns speech and gender or sex.
Chapter two entitled ‘War of Attrition’ begins with a realization of social responsibility. In one

part of the book Eaton wrote:

“The American self is not a selfish self, but a responsible self with a sense of moral

obligation both to himself and to his fellow citizens.” (Eaton, 2010: 13)

It also talked about citizen responsibility, character-building, and the further importance of the

gender movement leading to the establishment of Co-ed in the University. Such step towards

gender emancipation opened doors to discuss concerns about the students’ sexuality including

precautionary measures and choices if unwanted pregnancies happen. The most advanced

development presented in the chapter was the forwarding of equality and diversity in the

university.

The third chapter entitled ‘Mother Earth’s Angry Armies’ mostly tackles the gradual relevance

of the environment and the rallying call of the citizens for its conservation. On the other hand,

the chapter does not only tackle the environment when it talks about Mother Earth. It also

discusses political issues such as that of conquest and biological and chemical warfare that do

not only kill people but also affect the environment. All these lead to environmental degradation

and climate change which would eventually result to the loss of life.

Chapter four entitled ‘The Sword of “Justice”’ which exposes the anomalies in the United States

Supreme Court when its justices decides on a case contrary to the rule of law. It also tackles the

milestones concerning controversial cases such as that of slavery. On the other hand it continues
to challenge other previous controversial decisions such as that concerning the difference in the

funding of education in secular and religious schools.

The fifth chapter entitled ‘Scientists Sign Up’ tackles the importance of science in the developing

Western civilization. On the other hand, this chapter also exposes the use of science in order to

either advance political agenda or to earn more profit by “manufacturing facts” to enforce the

need for science especially in the field of medicine, physics, chemistry, and biotechnology.

Chapter six entitled ‘Choice of Weapons’ pertains not only to the literal type of weapons but also

to other media and tools that can be used in order to be in an advantageous position especially in

politics. Verbal skill and mass media are the most highlighted subtheme in the chapter

elaborating on their ability to manipulate and control public opinion thereby whoever employing

those tools gains the upper hand in the power struggle. It also includes the importance of culture

and the arts in molding the minds of the members of society. The last part of the chapter deals

with the conventional weapons that aim to produce mass panic and hysteria in order to control

political power.

The last chapter entitled ‘The Flickering Torch’ states that due to the different controversies and

atrocities that happened alongside development in the past years, there is a threat that looms over

what we know as freedom. Eaton warns of the imminent resurgence of the suppression of

freedom. Here he associates the current context of America wherein President Barack Obama

who earlier impressed the American citizens with his rhetoric during his campaign earned the ire
of the people because they felt that they were no longer prioritized by the government which led

to the eventual rise and strengthening of the United States Tea Party.

The two books exhibited different writing styles and focused on different aspects in explaining

the emergence of populist right-wing groups particularly the Tea Party. Rosenthal and Trost

solely focused on academically explaining the Tea Party which includes its formation, agenda,

stands, and dynamics. They were able to make bullet points out of their chapters in order to

present coherent information about the Tea Party. On the otherhand, Eaton took a look back at

the history of militancy in the United States and the struggle for freedom led by the students

which then spilled onto the American citizenry.

Langenbacher and Schellenberg in the book found out that radical and populist right-wing

groups advocated at least three issues: the crisis of contribution and access, crisis of political

misrepresentation, and crisis of identity. (Langenbacher and Schellenberg, 2011) These served as

their framework in examining right-wing parties and groups. Both books by Rosenthal and Trost,

and Easton fit the framework laid out by Langenbacher and Schellenberg despite their

differences in the style of writing.

Rosenthal and Trost were able to pinpoint the three issues by the framework in formulating their

analyses for the economic, political, and socio-cultural stand made by the members of the Tea

Party which describes the current American conditions. Tea Partyists oppose President Obama’s

economic policies of dole outs with a “socialist” because this kind of policy gives away

resources that spills over to “free loaders” that are most of the time not even Americans. This
creates a huge disadvantage for the Americans in receiving appropriate care from their

government.

Eaton agrees with Rosenthal and Trost, adding that even the opening of the American market and

other trade liberalization policies have actually become detrimental to local consumers and the

American citizens. He notes that it seems the government prioritizes profit over the welfare of its

citizens:

“The Obama administration is rushing the nation toward the status of a sociofascist

“banana republic” nonentity, entangled in transnational commissions, boards, courts and

assemblies that would render America unable either to identify or defend itself.” (Eaton,

2010: 131)

Rosenthal and Trost see the crisis of political representation as a real event in the United States.

They see that American politics is no longer about forwarding the interests of the American

people through the enforcement of policies in favor of them. Instead it has been all about power

politics and a popularity contest among politicians vying for a position in the government for

their sake.

Eaton agrees with Rosenthal and Trost that the Americans are politically not only misrepresented

but are unrepresented. The government hides behind laws and policies that seem to exude

“openness” and “democracy” but are conscious of weaving these illusions to cover their

intention of staying in power. This merely shoves the people and interests aside.
In the last point, Rosenthal, Trost, and Eaton concur about the gradual crisis of identity in the

United States. This is what Rosenthal and Trost discuss in their book about the Tea Party being

labeled as a “White Citizenship” movement. This may have to do with the composition of their

membership but Rosenthal and Trost see it as an inevitable outcome given that the Americans

are gradually feeling irrelevant and marginalized in their country that has become a melting pot

of people from different races and cultures. Eaton adds that the freedom America is experiencing

today is the fruit of the fight and struggles of the American forefathers for independence.

However with the rise of liberalism, which promised to foster, ensure, and even promote liberty,

freedom has actually been more reduced thereby imprisoning the American people in their very

homeland.

As for the question of whether the Tea Party would become a threat to American democracy

given its widening support base, Rosenthal and Trost did not state an opinion in order to respond

to this query. However, they did discuss their skepticism about the tactical alliance republican

have been trying to make with the Tea Party in order to garner more electoral support. While

they acknowledge that such alliance would prove to be a powerful combination in favor the

Republican group, they do not think that it is still enough to topple down the American liberal

democratic system.

Eaton on the other hand admires the strengthening of the Tea Party. While also not offering a

response on whether the Tea Party poses an imminent threat to liberal democracy, he thinks
highly of the rise of the Tea Party and the popularity of other rightist groups in other countries.

He says in his concluding remarks:

“The spontaneous uprising of the Tea Party millions roars its affirmation that there is

vitality remaining in this country and this civilization. These millions of Americans who

share the horror of what is now happening to them speak to those who are, as they

themselves once were, not yet aware of the depth and reach of the revolutionary events

taking place before their eyes. They are the next to share enlightenment about this new

darkness; to understand that their country is being stolen from them.” (Eaton, 2010: 131)