Should the tea party members become a political party?

Well the problem with that is....most tea party people are not a "party" people. They are fed up with the "parties".They want to support INDIVIDUALs They think will do a good job and STOP blindly supporting corrupt "parties".

I think teapartiers are not permanent political movement as little impact on the real political fabric of the country.

You know, I wish I knew what the tea partiers really DO stand for. I mean, in the beginning the emphasis seemed to be on taxes, like the original tea party. "Taxed Enough Already" was their slogan, right? I recently heard that the overwhelming majority of those involved with the tea party movement believed their taxes had gone up since President Obama took office although the truth is 95% of us got a tax CUT. I've also heard from the beginning that they were dissatisfied with Washington in general and supported neither party yet there were high-profile members of the GOP leadership speaking at all of their major rallies early on and most of the signs they carried were anti-Obama and anti-liberal. There have been many signs and pictures of the President as Hitler as well as calling him a socialist, fascist and communist. I'm NOT calling everyone or ANYONE involved with the movement racists but you must admit the crowds at the rallies have been almost exclusively white. I know the "national convention" where Sister Sarah was the keynote speaker and then gave her pre-screened three question interview with notes on her hand has already been denounced by other tea partiers as not being representative of them, which is a relief since their other speakers included a blatant racist and a publisher with ties to the birthers and the truthers. I love the idea of a truly grassroots movement of "average" Americans. I agree we need to really clean house in Washington as well as in our state capitals, counties, towns and cities. I think we NEED to get the big money out of politics and that means taking away the power lobbyists have over politicians and candidates. I don't know anyone locally who has attended any tea parties and I'm not even sure if there have been any in my area so other than the few of my friends here who have attended some in their area I know nothing other than what I see on the news or read in the newspapers or online. To answer your questions, I don't know if the majority of those who support the tea parties think the Republicans are "like-minded" but I know the Republicans think they can "absorb" the tea partiers. It's hard to say who would be hurt and who would be helped if they became a political party. I think being involved in a movement like the tea partiers is fine but I think we also need to focus hard on campaign finance reform. A good start is to try to undo what the Supreme Court did with their recent ruling and then get to work on kicking the lobbyists out for good! Annie

You know, I wish I knew what the tea partiers really DO stand for. I mean, in the beginning the emphasis seemed to be on taxes, like the original tea party. "Taxed Enough Already" was their slogan, right? I recently heard that the overwhelming majority of those involved with the tea party movement believed their taxes had gone up since President Obama took office although the truth is 95% of us got a tax CUT. I've also heard from the beginning that they were dissatisfied with Washington in general and supported neither party yet there were high-profile members of the GOP leadership speaking at all of their major rallies early on and most of the signs they carried were anti-Obama and anti-liberal. There have been many signs and pictures of the President as Hitler as well as calling him a socialist, fascist and communist. I'm NOT calling everyone or ANYONE involved with the movement racists but you must admit the crowds at the rallies have been almost exclusively white. I know the "national convention" where Sister Sarah was the keynote speaker and then gave her pre-screened three question interview with notes on her hand has already been denounced by other tea partiers as not being representative of them, which is a relief since their other speakers included a blatant racist and a publisher with ties to the birthers and the truthers. I love the idea of a truly grassroots movement of "average" Americans. I agree we need to really clean house in Washington as well as in our state capitals, counties, towns and cities. I think we NEED to get the big money out of politics and that means taking away the power lobbyists have over politicians and candidates. I don't know anyone locally who has attended any tea parties and I'm not even sure if there have been any in my area so other than the few of my friends here who have attended some in their area I know nothing other than what I see on the news or read in the newspapers or online. To answer your questions, I don't know if the majority of those who support the tea parties think the Republicans are "like-minded" but I know the Republicans think they can "absorb" the tea partiers. It's hard to say who would be hurt and who would be helped if they became a political party. I think being involved in a movement like the tea partiers is fine but I think we also need to focus hard on campaign finance reform. A good start is to try to undo what the Supreme Court did with their recent ruling and then get to work on kicking the lobbyists out for good! Annie

I think the official platform of the republican party is "like-minded" with the tea parties. So is the reform party's platform. The problem is, what politicians are doing does not match the platform they claim to stand on. Political party's seem doomed to corruption which is why I think the tea parties would do best to endorse the specific candidates that match their values rather than any one party. I've always said that political parties are like "Voting for Dummies". They teach people to blindly vote for people they know nothing about beyond the letter next to their name.

Forming a registered group would subject said group to pressures to conform, compromise and capitulate. Said group would then be following established party to "consolidate their voting power", and nothing would change substantially. The resistance to the two-party scam would simply be absorbed into the establishment collective.

I think that the platform of the Republican party is closer to Tea Party ideals than is that of the Democratic Party. However, not every Republican candidate is going to be the candidate who best represents their views. A case in point would be Scozzafava in NY23 this year. Conservative voters abandoned her in favor of the independent candidate, Hoffman. Following the principles that the Tea Party stands for might, in some cases, mean going for a fiscally responsible, moderate Democrat. I don't think the Tea Party consists of people of just one party, they are people who have a particular vision of America and the type of government they want. The Republicans are desperately trying to woo them, and that's a good thing if it makes the Republican party go back to its original platform of smaller government and more personal responsibility and liberty. The Tea Party is not ready to form its own party at this time, in my opinion. But they may be one day. What they need to watch out for is letting another group hijack them, because the larger the organization, the more likely it is to corrupt those pure ideals in the name of "politics".