The Tea party and the remaking of republican conservatism / Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Skocpol, Theda.

Contributor:

Williamson, Vanessa.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tea Party movement.

Conservatism--United States.

Conservatism.

United States.

Physical Description:

xii, 257 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, [2016]

Summary:

In 2009, grassroots activists took to the streets and airways in protest of big government, and in so doing built an influential conservative movement that quickly came to be known as the Tea Party. Elite conservatives such as the Koch brothers rallied around this popular movement, tunneling money into an effort to elect a large wave of right-wing Republicans to Congress. In this penetrating study, Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson provide a nuanced portrait of the Tea Party. Drawing on grassroots interviews and visits to local meetings in several regions, they find that older, middle-class Tea Partiers mostly approve of Social Security, Medicare, and generous benefits for military veterans. Their opposition to "big government" entails reluctance to pay taxes to help people whom they view as undeserving "freeloaders"-including immigrants, lower income earners, and the young. At the national level, conservative elites have leveraged grassroots energy to further longstanding goals such as tax cuts for the wealthy and deregulation of business. Perhaps surprisingly, these Tea Party-fueled elites have also pushed for privatization of the very same Social Security and Medicare programs on which many grassroots Tea Partiers depend. In this updated edition, the authors trace the continuing influence of the Tea Party through the early 2016 primaries, which have seen Republican candidates-particularly Donald Trump-employ harsh nativist rhetoric while paradoxically mingling anti-government sentiment with support for entitlements for the elderly. With this updating, The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism remains the most authoritative book on the movement that upended American politics in the Obama era. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Behind the Costumes and Signs: Who Are the Tea Partiers? 19

2 What They Believe: Ideas and Passions 45

3 Mobilized Grassroots and Roving Billionaires: The Panoply of Tea Party Organizations 83

4 Getting the Word Out: The Media as Cheerleader and Megaphone 121

5 How the Tea Party Boosts the GOP and Prods It Rightward 155

6 The Tea Party and American Democracy 189.

Notes:

"First Issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 2013, 2016."

ISBN:

0190633662

9780190633660

OCLC:

948339082