What do Republicans have in common with the Donner Party? I would think very little, but Tim Kaine, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, disagrees.
According to Kaine, Republicans, like the most infamous of American cannibals, have resorted to eating their own. “What we’re seeing in the Republican Party is that they invited the Tea Party in and it’s turning into the Donner Party, in some instances, because they’re turning the energy and the ferocity against each other,” Kaine told The Huffington Post. OK then.
Kaine isn’t the first to make this point. It seems like every time I go to The New York Times’s website, there’s a story about the battle between the Republican Party establishment—whatever that means—and the Tea Party.
Everyone seems to agree that the cadre of extremely conservative candidates the Tea Party has helped nominate will hurt Republican chances in the midterms.
I don’t know how this narrative got started, but it’s just plain wrong.
Tea Party activists, along with many Republican voters, are reacting against a party leadership that no longer seems to stand for anything. There was a time when the Republican Party defended core conservative principles and a limited federal government. But somewhere along the way, it gave that up and started interfering more and more in people’s private lives.
George W. Bush left a legacy of huge deficit spending, government bailouts and an overly aggressive foreign policy. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell haven’t done much to change that.
Many Republicans no longer identify with their party. So, when the Tea Party starts talking about the issues that matter to them—lower taxes, smaller government and fiscal responsibility—they respond.
Conservative candidates like Marco Rubio aren’t a danger to the Republican Party; they’re a boon. A party that doesn’t stand for anything won’t win elections. One that fields candidates with a clear message and strong convictions will.
Tim Kaine can make all the jokes he wants about the Tea Party. He can convince himself that they’re all just crazy ideologues no one will vote for. When those crazy ideologues beat Kaine’s candidates in November, they won’t be laughing. They’ll be too busy governing.
Nathaniel French is a senior theater major. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].
