No doubt everyone knows about the rise of the Tea Party and their influence in today's political world. They seemed to come out of nowhere and gave the Republican party a majority in the House of Representatives in the 2010 elections. Their beliefs are rooted deep in traditional, conservative principles that capture the hearts of many Americans. Which is why the Republican party is currently having its house divided between the two.
I wouldn't say that the Tea Party is a third party that seeks to disrupt the traditional two-party system of politics. From my understanding, the Republican party has been divided into two wings: the Republican establishment and the Republican conservatives, which the Tea Party stems from. One of the Tea Party's stated goals is to convert and re-brand the Republican party which they believe has drifted away from conservative ideals and has become more government heavy. They stated that the 2012 election was lost, not just the presidency but the Senate as well, because the Republican establishment hand-picked candidates that did not fully embrace the grass-roots, limited-government principles that the Tea Party wields, and I am tempted to agree. Obama and Romney were complete opposites from my perspective, but to the average undecided or independent there wasn't enough of an immediate distinction between them and the election was viewed as choosing the lesser of two evils. The Tea Party offers a more distinctive choice that they believe fully distinguishes the ideological, economical, and social differences between Democrats and the Republicans.http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/nov/7/tea-party-leader-gop-establishment-big-loser/?page=all
Again, the Tea Party's influence is still strong and they have people in office for 2016 that are staunchly conservative and well-respected. In fact, two of these people gave their rebuttals to Obama's State of the Union Address last week: Marco Rubio and Rand Paul. Rubio gave the Republican rebuttal and Paul gave the one for the Tea Party; the fact that the Tea Party has a big enough base to justify a second rebuttal is telling. Rubio and Paul had a very similar rebuttals in regards to the president as well as immigration, the difference being that Paul spread the guilt out to the Republican establishment as well as the Democrats.http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/13/us-obama-speech-paul-idUSBRE91C0BR20130213
While many people are quick to believe that the Tea Party is dead now that the election is over, I can guarantee you that they aren't going anywhere. I believe that their influence will continue to rise and the Republican establishment will eventually lean back towards conservative values, especially if they want to actually have a chance of winning big in 2016.
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