Conclusion
This concluding chapter discusses how the Tea Party remains an important player in American politics and a subject of great national interest. Since relatively few people ever become an official member of a social movement, this study focuses on the attitudes and behavior of Tea Party sympathizers, instead of the members and organizers themselves. The chapter argues that out-group hostility and adherence to conservative principles are not the only ways of understanding why people are sympathetic to the aims of the Tea Party. The movement is also associated with social change perceived as subversion. Support for the Tea Party is really a proxy for reactionary conservatism, which provides a different motivation for various attitudes and behavior associated with current political and policy issues.