Well, they did it. Against all odds, the starfish people – aka the Tea Party movement – have in less than two years not merely changed American politics, but reversed its direction entirely.
Tuesday’s results make clear the Tea Party is the most dynamic and successful grass-roots political movement since Thomas Jefferson and James Madison organized the Democratic-Republican revolt against John Adams and the Federalists in 1800.
They did so because they did exactly what they should have done. Instead of fighting specific issues and causes like Card Check and cap-and-trade, they ignored their critics while focusing their energies on finding, fielding, funding and fueling candidates for elected office at every level of government, but especially for Congress.
They worked within the system in the most direct way possible by defining the decisive issues of the 2010 campaign and putting forth candidates to replace Washington officials who refused to listen to the people during the long, hot summer of Town Hall protests in 2009.
That is why, without the Tea Party, the Republicans would not have gained 63 seats in the House, nor would we now be adding “Senator-elect” to the names of Rand Paul in Kentucky, Marco Rubio in Florida, Mike Lee in Utah and Ron Johnson in Wisconsin.
True, Sharron Angle lost to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada and Christine O’Donnell lost in Delaware. But even in losing, Angle and O’Donnell contributed mightily to the movement’s Election Day success.
Angle forced Reid and Democratic campaign strategists and funders to devote massive efforts and millions of dollars that would otherwise have gone to other candidates like Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania and Alex Giannoulias in Illinois who might well then have defeated their GOP opponents.
O’Donnell took out a top RINO in Rep. Mike Castle, thereby serving notice on other RINOs across the country that they better move back to the center in order to get right with the Republican base. She thus helped move the center of political momentum nationwide back to the right.
The next key decision for Tea Party leaders is whether to encourage their newly elected leaders to come to Washington to throw down an all-or-nothing ultimatum or to force President Obama and congressional leaders to compromise.
Yes, I used the C-word. Before you reach for the tar and feathers, understand what I am saying here: Our system is purposely and brilliantly designed to force political leaders with radically opposed visions to compromise. That’s the genius of the founders, what The Federalist Papers call our Constitution’s “remedy for the Republican defect” – the inability to overcome the worst effects of factions.
But there are genuine compromises and then there is obstruction masquerading as compromise. To achieve the former, congressional GOPers must have the backbone to negotiate from a position of strength so that the end result always moves the ball a significant distance in the direction dictated by the popular will.
Saying you will accept “tweaks” of Obamacare when the majority of Americans want that monstrosity repealed and replaced is not real compromise, it’s obstruction. It was clear in Obama’s post-election news conference that he doesn’t understand such a distinction.
Tea Partiers should prepare for a Long March rather than a quick fix. As Ronald Reagan put it, we didn’t get into this mess overnight and we won’t get out of it overnight either.
The new senator-elect from Wisconsin clearly understands this reality. Johnson told Fox News on Wednesday that “we’ve dug ourselves into a very deep hole and people in Wisconsin understand that the first step is to stop digging. This is probably going to be a multiyear, multielection process.”
That means finding another great crop of congressional candidates for 2012 and 2014. It also means the presidential race should NOT be a Tea Party priority. Presidents stand on the bridge barking commands, to be sure, but we can thank the Founders for putting Congress in charge of the rudder.
There is, after all, a reason the Constitution makes Congress the first branch.
Mark Tapscott is editorial page editor of The Washington Examiner and proprietor of Tapscott’s CopyDesk blog on washingtonexaminer.com
