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The Politics Of The Texas Tea Party

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The Texas Tea Party is one of the many Tea Parties spread thought the United States. The Texas division itself is split further into many subdivision groups of the Texas Tea Party; including the McKinney Tea Party, Mason Tea Party, and the North Houston Tea Party Patriots. All Tea Parties share core principles of free markets, fiscal responsibility, Constitutional Republic, limited government, lower taxes, and national sovereignty. Additionally, the movement of the Texas Tea Party affords a home for those concerned about the economic future of the United States.
The Great Recession of 2008 spurred the rise of populist sentiment. “Distrust of the federal government and anxiety about the country’s direction were coalescing into [the Tea …show more content…

The Senator of South Carolina, Jim DeMint, supported Tea Party candidates from within Republican establishments (Ray, par 5).
In 2009 at least 200 Tea Party groups were formed in Texas. The amount of people in Texas inspired by the Tea Party movement only became evident on Election Day. 47 percent of Texas voters claimed to be supporters of the Tea Party. Their turnout produced a Republican gain of twenty-two seats in the Texas House of Representatives.
There are at least two threats that the Tea Party currently faces. The first threat is the anti-Tea Party meme; which is a construct of liberal media calling the Tea Party dangerous extremists. However, the Tea Party has debunked this charge through habitually civil behavior. Another part of the anti-Tea Party meme is charges of racism. However, the fading of large Tea Party gatherings have taken away opportunities to demonstrate large crowds of white people as a sign of racism.
A second threat to the Tea Party is the threat of widespread voter fraud. If voter fraud is too widespread, the efforts of the Tea Party may not be enough to “counteract the get-out-the-vote efforts of Tea Party organizations across the nation” (Cary, 2).
There is no single agenda of the Tea Party. This allows each autonomous group to set its own priorities. Tea Party organizers view this as strength, because this aids against corruption from within and co-opting by outside entities. The Tea Party’s

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