U.S. conservative movement -- Tea Party loses out in elections

by Ben Reilly Wed May 21, 2014 7:32 am

All right, UK -- this is how to handle the likes of UKIP:

The tea party wanted to send a message by ousting a longtime Washington incumbent, but Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell had other ideas.

He easily turned back a primary challenge from businessman Matt Bevin in Kentucky Tuesday night, by a wide 60-36 percent margin.

McConnell had seen the challenge coming months ago and began campaigning in earnest, and it paid off.

His campaign used a very different approach than Republican favorites used in 2010 and 2012, and the results will be widely seen as a win for "the establishment" (usually defined as incumbents and party leadership) over political newcomers and outside groups.

It also speaks to a larger narrative in the fight for control over the direction of the GOP, though that direction isn't always measured strictly in wins at the ballot box.

As CBS News' Nancy Cordes reported, Bevin believed his campaign had succeeded in pushing McConnell toward more consistently conservative positions. That dynamic - in Kentucky and elsewhere - figures to be key to what ultimately happens in November, when Republicans will undoubtedly need to find a balance between keeping their conservative base motivated and attracting a wider array of voters in the general election.

Tuesday's primary kicked off what figures to be the most intense Senate race this year, with McConnell facing Allison Lundergan Grimes, who won the Democratic nod and is essentially tied with McConnell in early polls.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/primaries-chalk-up-wins-for-republican-establishment/

I see the Tea Party movement as analogous to UKIP (people pushing conservatism to its crazy extremes). Nice to see that in the U.S. at least, voters are deciding to back away from the cliff's edge.

Also nice to see that the lefty in the general race seems to have more than a fighting chance Smile

Reject extremism!

by Lone Wolf Wed May 21, 2014 3:52 pm

GROUPS such as the "Tea Party" in the USA (and their Aussie offshoot in the darker recesses of the Liberal party..), and the UKIP, BNP and EDL in Britain, are by their very nature fated to "burn brightly and die out early..".

The majority of their votes in their early electoral runs are usually boosted by a swag of disenchanted voters posting "protest votes" against a previous or current government's bad performance..

In subsequent elections, that majority of new and temporary "fair weather friends" tends to gradually drift back towards less extremist and mainstream parties, and maybe even some of the more genuine independent candidates, as they find that the more extreme voices are heavy on nastiness, bulldust and rhetoric, but weak on any actual policies and lacking in any sensibility. Idea

by Original Quill Thu May 22, 2014 1:58 am

The Tea Party did not lose. It moved the whole Republican Party to the extreme right. Their guy lost...but now everyone is a tea partier, so what's the difference?

by Ben Reilly Thu May 22, 2014 4:45 am

Original Quill wrote:The Tea Party did not lose. It moved the whole Republican Party to the extreme right. Their guy lost...but now everyone is a tea partier, so what's the difference?

Well, the way I see it is that they may have won the battle of taking over the conservative movement, but they've lost the war in that they're one of the most reviled groups in America.

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U.S. conservative movement -- Tea Party loses out in elections

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