The Tea Party. American Fiscal Conservative movement existing in name (that is, under the name of the Tea Party) from 2009 to 2016, utilized grassroots strategies and local elections to hoist themselves into power in November of 2011, going from an 81 point deficit to a 43 person lead in the U.S. House. This is all well and good, as they not only accomplished a massive red wave in that midterm, but also revolutionized the course of American political activism and lobbying forever. However, falling into the cycle most right-wing movements had been at that point, for a while trapped in, right-wingers failed to acknowledge the denigration of the culture, which stemmed from no-fault divorce, and extensive economic focus of the Conservatives of the 70’s and 80’s. Compared to today’s dominant movement (in which most people identify as Republican), Conservatism, Democrats’ responses to the protests of the Tea Party are not even comparable to contemporary efforts to thwart Conservative narratives. Today's smear campaigns, defamations, and criminal convictions, go to show the blind rage Tea Partiers could have imposed on mainstream pundits by employing as much as a light cultural rhetoric to go along with its dominant message of economic reform. In short, two things Conservatives, the Tea Party’s "mother movement”, didn’t understand, and failed to ever learn, were that Obama’s party would much rather have a fiscally Conservative and culturally Leftist nation than that of the contrary, and that the American political system and society do not permit the economy to be fully mended without a cultural front, and vice versa. A national movement, especially when mostly lacking an official hierarchy as described last week, will no doubt have its faults. Here's why the Tea Party movement decided to stay culturally moderate or undecided, and how it has affected the state of Conservative activism today. 

A look into history

For all of America's history, the most prolific political divide has always been over culture. After all, the nation was established on the very argument over what culture ought to rule over the colonies. Basically, the burning fire in every American’s heart to fight for their idea of a cohesive culture coupled with the fact of being the most culturally diverse nation in the world has always been a perfect formula for an ongoing debate between Liberals and Conservatives, although those definitions have changed much over time. 

The Tea Party had its time and place in the political sphere, but never achieved its full capacity in terms of what the Right as an entire political movement could have done. Even many former members admit today that it was quite loud, but didn’t lead to anything major. Perhaps out of fear of losing more moderate followers who were (as many still are) not culturally Conservative, the movement regulated a steady campaign and rhetoric around economics, spending, and healthcare. Instead of utilizing the movement’s strong cultural leaders to instigate change on both the economic and cultural front, they made the mistake of ignoring the society Leftists already had a strict handle on, which is exactly what oppositions wanted. 

Effect on today

What people didn’t seem to believe back in the days of the Tea Party was that in order to fix the economy, you needed to nurture the culture as well. For example, not only being the only institution to bring new life into the world, but properly raising them to be functional adults, the family is the fundamental political institution. This is why society is witnessing the Left’s mass attempt to eliminate the nuclear family through promoting abortion, ignoring the record-high levels of fatherlessness (especially in the black community), and much more. Deficits in common values other than sharing the idea of “only this amount of money should go to this government program”, makes it a lot more difficult for people to fully latch onto the complete message Conservatives were trying to impart. In other words, it’s a lot more difficult to emotionally connect to GDP percentages on a chart than it is to hear a miraculous story of an abortion survivor. Eventually, Trump brought more awareness with his rather raw cultural observations of the situation right wingers were in, which then spurred interest in advocacy groups like Live Action, Young America’s Foundation, and Students for Life of America. This is what the Tea Party failed to do, which is balance out their economic espousal with the promotion of social policies as well. This piece isn’t a dismissal of the importance of a strong economic front in the Conservative movement, but an examination of one without a “sister movement”, whose main cornerstone would be to fight for a moral culture. Due to this, the late 2000’s to early 2010’s Right wing failed to fix anything worthwhile long-term, which is both good and bad. On one hand, it was mostly a waste of time policy wise, seeing as barely anything Tea Party backed passed into legislation. On the other hand though, it’s the reason why this surge of super enthusiastic Trump supporters are accomplishing so much today, despite the man’s absurd number of court hearings, gag orders and lack of presidential status. 

I digress

All in all, it was not the Tea Party’s fault for ignoring the culture, as that was not its niche. Throughout the movement’s existence, the issue of a sister movement tasked with more soft, humanitarian issues remained in the hands of the rest of the right wing. There were plenty of analysts with a talent for recognizing sociological patterns and deeper meanings within daily news stories about abortion or immigration, who stood idly by while the Tea Partiers pushed for lower taxes and fewer government regulations. This has already shifted today, and can be seen with modern voter issues. According to Gallup polling, in 2010, the top voter issues included, in order, “economy, healthcare, unemployment, federal budget deficit, terrorism”, all hard issues, with little to no cultural consideration. In March 2024, top issues included “immigration, inflation, economy and jobs, crime and drugs, healthcare”, per Harvard-Harris. Thought of in the context of their times, both sets rank economics near the top, but in the latter set, an increased concern for more “people-based” issues shows the progress Conservatives have already made in realizing the economy-cultural issues continuum. Overall, continued focus on American customs, and begging the question of “What do Americans value most?” will allow for the culture to return to at least some sense of normalcy once again.