Financial Times Editorial Comment: Palin’s brewhaha

Financial Times Editorial Comment: Palin’s brewhaha
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010
Published: February 9 2010 22:53 | Last updated: February 9 2010 22:53
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/575c4a5e-15b7-11df-ad7e-00144feab49a.html


The Republican establishment has mixed feelings about the Tea Party movement, and is right to. This populist insurgency is one of the least predictable factors in US politics. Is it a supporting faction of the Republican party or a third force? Will it drive Republicans to a strong showing in November’s mid-term elections or split the opposition to Mr Obama and come to the Democrats’ rescue?

Leaderless and unbiddable, the Tea Party activists have no clear agenda and no direction. They are conservatives, to be sure – advocates of low taxes and small government, and passionately opposed to the Obama administration – but only loosely attached to the Republican party. Many feel as betrayed by Republican leaders in Congress as by the president and his party.

At their inaugural convention last weekend, they gave a rapturous welcome to Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for vice-president in 2008. For the Republican leadership, this was expected, but still ominous. After Mrs Palin’s self-destruction during the campaign, and the recriminations that followed, she is a party outsider. Together, she and the Tea Party activists might divide the Republicans. As bad would be to drive it to the right, just as centrists seem ready to abandon the Democrats.

Much will depend on how the Democratic and Republican leaderships play their hands. Up to now, Democrats have poured scorn, energising the objects of their derision. If Tea Party activists are mainly a threat to Republicans, this is good tactics. So far, though, the mockery has backfired: the movement has made it a higher priority to defeat Democrats than to seize control of the Republican party. Scott Brown’s victory in the recent Massachusetts election owed much to Tea Party support.

A further risk in Democratic disdain is that independents will take offence if the contempt gets too ugly. The Democrats would be wise to moderate their scorn, and hope the Tea Party runs out of steam. However, for many Democrats, this is asking a lot.

For Republicans, the hope must be to absorb the movement and its energy – as Mrs Palin said the party should – without being carried too far to the right. At best, this might be difficult, especially if the movement starts to press for Republican candidates in its own image. Much worse will be if Mrs Palin co-opts the movement as a base of her own, in preparation for a presidential run. In that event, the Republicans will have more than Mr Obama to contend with this year.