1/ THREAD. Like it or Trump it, outside of being anti-Obama, the Tea Party Movement had no real ideological identity and allowed populism, nationalism, and fringe conspiracy kookdom to fester. Looking back, this movement was the precursor to Trumpism.
2/ FTR, I went to a TP rally in Orlando in 2009, and I was as critical of what I witnessed then as I am today.
There were some decent speakers (who are now mostly hypocritical "what was bad for Obama is good for Trump" MAGAts), but I was primarily concerned with the populist...
There were some decent speakers (who are now mostly hypocritical "what was bad for Obama is good for Trump" MAGAts), but I was primarily concerned with the populist...
3/ ...and delusional, "vote them ALL out" mindset, and how the the movement itself attracted the very Bircher-type undesirables William F. Buckley successfully ostracized from the conservative agenda in his day.
4/ 9/11 Truthers, ALT-Right birthers, "burn it all down" anarchists, "Obama is gay," "Michelle Obama is a man," and various other conspiracy kook misfits we're all allowed under the big TP umbrella.
5/ The problem. The fringe wasn't satisfied with just being there. They wanted control, and since the TP legitimized them, the control they received within the movement extended to local Republican groups and beyond.
6/ When Trump came on the scene in 2011 (his infamous Good Morning America interview) where he claimed he was a Republican, questioned Obama's citizenship, and considered running for POTUS, was the very moment the fringe knew they had their man.
7/ Today, the GOP is Trump's GOP, the alternative media have ALL become Alex Jones, and the "conservative" movement has successfully ostracized intellectuals and Constitutionalists in order to become the very low-info racist caricature the left once falsely labeled all of us.
x/ As someone who was a Conservative decades before this movement existed, I have no problem saying the Tea Party is to blame. #NeverTrump #ExGOP
