The Tea Party Movement in Pennsylvania: A New Brand of Populism?

This chapter frames the book’s analysis and provides an overview of the subsequent chapters. It explains how racism today is manifested most significantly in white “outgroup hostility” toward Latinos and Muslims as well as African Americans. It highlights the importance of race-baiting elites in exploiting a transformed media landscape to stoke white outgroup hostility and thereby mainstream racism in American politics today. The chapter introduces and defines a number of key terms, including “racialized political narratives” that operate to racialize selected groups of people to be constructed as threatening “outgroups” in opposition to whites as the “ingroup.” It emphasizes that the “political opportunity structure” for white racial extremists became more open, especially with the rise of the Tea Party movement, leading to their increased participation in conventional politics. The chapter argues that these factors had already converged prior to 2016 for Donald Trump to exploit in winning the presidency, thereby accelerating the mainstreaming of racism in American politics by putting it at the center of public policymaking in the White House.

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Tea Party Movement

Encyclopedia of Politics of the American West ◽

10.4135/9781452276076.n381 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Charles Rosenberg

Keyword(s):

Tea Party ◽

Tea Party Movement

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Interaction Rituals and Religious Culture in the Tea Party

Religion and Society ◽

10.3167/arrs.2018.090104 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 39-51

Author(s):

Stacy M. K. George

Keyword(s):

Political Influence ◽

Religious Right ◽

Religious Culture ◽

Tea Party ◽

Tea Party Movement ◽

Group Solidarity ◽

Conservative Christianity ◽

Interaction Rituals ◽

Christian Culture ◽

Religious Perspectives

Scholars have noted the variety of ideological and religious perspectives present in the Tea Party movement. This study addresses why both religious and nonreligious individuals may be involved in the Tea Party despite its cultural connection to ‘traditional’ conservative Christianity. The article explores Tea Party participation and commitment, arguing that group membership is sustained by the party’s ability to create interaction rituals reflective of Christian culture as an acknowledgement of American Christian values. The Tea Party frames its ideology as sacred, thereby establishing group commitment and cohesion. As a result, it is capable of attracting constituents from inside and outside of the Religious Right. By validating the experiences of others and creating a system of interdependency, the Tea Party has the potential to create group solidarity leading to collective action and exceptional political influence.

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Tea Party Movement

Issues for Debate in Social Policy: Selections from CQ Researcher ◽

10.4135/9781483375342.n5 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 107-134

Author(s):

Peter Katel

Keyword(s):

Tea Party ◽

Tea Party Movement

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Should Catholics Drink the Tea?: Reflections on the Tea Party Movement in Light of Gaudium et Spes

Horizons ◽

10.1017/hor.2015.109 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 42 (2) ◽

pp. 317-340

Author(s):

Daniel R. Dileo

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Tea Party ◽

Fiscal Responsibility ◽

Tea Party Movement ◽

Gaudium Et Spes ◽

Limited Government ◽

Laissez Faire

This article seeks to fill a gap in Catholic literature by reflecting on the extent to which the Tea Party movement can be understood as consistent with Gaudium et Spes (GS). First, the article provides an overview of the Tea Party movement and its core ideological principles: intense individualism, emphasis on negative human rights, limited government, fiscal responsibility, low taxes, and laissez-faire capitalism. Next, the article offers a brief description of the contextual and ecclesial background of GS and reviews its key themes. The article then assesses the extent to which the ideological principles of the Tea Party movement are supported by GS, concluding that although there are points of partial resonance between the ideology of the Tea Party and GS, the former is largely inconsistent with the vision outlined and articulated by the latter.

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