The book The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism is a book that was written after interviewing Tea Party activists across the United States. This was an exercise that was conducted over a sixteen month period. According to the book, as the digging in into the movement gathered momentum, it became clear that the Tea Party is not the giant obstacle that it’s occasionally painted as. The political approach that is taken by Tea Party members is conservative in nature. Aside from this it has divergent views, interests and goals. Further research into the book was conducted by attending Tea Party meetings, interviewing active members and reading their blogs and websites. The book takes further insight into what is the Tea Party’s most fundamental concern. They feel that hard working Americans are being forced to pay for unworthy free loaders through tax chopped from their hard earned money. The free loaders in this case are classified as immigrants, the poor and the young who get welfare from the government. They saw these a nothing but legal theft from tax funded programs. The other key issue brought up in this book is about immigration. Immigration was and still is a central point of concern to Tea Party members. This is due to the general feeling amongst the members as a sign of broader national decline. The other areas of concern were Social Security and Medical Health Care. Some staunch Tea Party members said that they had worked for a very long time and ought to be rightfully compensated. What they were asking for were not hand outs but a pay out to what they have constantly paid into the system religiously over time.
The book addresses a number of key social issues that plague the United States but people are too afraid to come out in the open to talk about. Topping these issues is the idea of welfare that is being pushed and maintained by the Democrats. The Tea Party members feel that immigrants, poor people and the young are nothing but free loaders who live off the hard earned money of hardworking American citizens. The fact that they feel the welfare beneficiaries feel that they deserve the money is even more painful to them. They further feel like the youth of today have lost the value of work and are too lazy to go work to make an extra dollar. Tea Party movement members further believe that the country’s immigration policies meant that the country was on a broader national decline. In Massachusetts a Tea Party leader said that given the chance, he would go and stand at the border with a gun. In this state, when a survey was done amongst Tea Party members on what were the most pressing issues, this issue of immigration came in at second place. Another pressing point was that of healthcare and social security. Members of this movement said that in terms of social security, they did not want hand outs at retirement but what they had paid as future social security while still working. It also comes out clearly in this book that not all Tea Party members are knee-jerk tax cutters. A woman member in the Tea Party said that she did not mind tax increase as long as it got the country back on track again.
anomie, bifurcation, colortocracy, class conflict
One theory that has really come to the fore in the analysis of these problems is the Ethnographic theory. This theory basically seeks to describe and illustrate how power is distributed in a small groups based on their ethnic background. It brings to the fore the ways of a particular culture through writing and graphically. This comes to be seen in this book when it is clearly seen as evident that the people in the states have a clear way of livelihood. That is Americans have a system where those who are well placed I society (tax payers) give some of their hard earned cash through tax to the less fortunate through social welfare programs. This is seen when a Tea Party member who feel this to be wrong say that the government is not doing the right thing by asking Hard working Americans to pay for free loaders’ social programs.
The other theory that is coming clearly at this juncture is anomie theory. This is a sociological theory that looks at how social bonds formed between an individual and society gradually breaks down over time. According to the founder of this theory, Emile Durkheim, anomie arose as a result of a mismatch between personal and social standards. This could also be caused by moral deregulation and lack of true aspirations. This can thus be seen when there is a break in what society expects and what a few citizens expect themselves to be doing. The government insists that all citizens pay tax and some of it will go to welfare programs while Tea Partiers believe that this nothing but a joke aimed at helping undeserving people.
Finally, another theory acted out to solve some of these issues is the class conflict theory. This is a theory that was spearheaded by Karl Max who is commonly referred to as The Father of Social Conflict Theory. According to Karl Max, society is divided into three basic classes. The ruling class, the middle class and the lower class. The ruling class control all the means of production. The middle class act as assistants to the ruling class while the lower class act as handy men to the other classes. These three classes are always in constant conflict over resource control. The upper class is trying to hold onto its resources while the middle and lower classes are striving to climb up the social ladder and acquire what the ruling class have. The Tea Party members in this case are the upper and middle class members of society who provide the lower class with much needed relief. They feel that by giving social welfare to the needy and the poor they are creating a ladder for them to bridge the gap in economic disparity and reconcile the class differences. That is why the Tea Partiers are extremely opposed to the notion of welfare.
The book is seen by a scholar as one that has been wrapped up in a cordial and very scholarly tone. This is because he sees that the writers present a carefully researched paper on the Tea Party that raises concern over the random fulminations of liberals and progressives. He feels that the authors of the book do not hate Tea Partiers and they go out of their ways to present their views in a full, fair and friendly way. This is nothing but a reflection of the warmth and welcome they felt when they were conducting their study and saw it fit to give it back He feels that the book is objective and not tending to lean on any side of the political spectrum. He finally taes the book as an outstanding one and still alarming.
Another professor also had his thoughts on this highly rated book. He believes that a combination of considerable research of published material plus and personal visits to the Tea Party meetings paints an intriguing portrait to what the organization amounts to. That is a combo of grass root populism, conservatives, wealthy elites and the backing of a cheering gallery consisting of the right wing media. Despite the fact that the writers are self confessed liberals he feels that hay still go a long way not to taint the Tea Party unnecessarily. He feels that the description was interesting though it offered little analysis.
A student of sociology feels that the book is an honest insight into political movements. This is because he feels that the authors offer a direct insight into the perspectives and views of the new Tea Party Movement. He sees this as being a very good move as they do direct interviews with members of the group and activists unlike depending on media bias.
Reference:
T. Skocpol & V. Wiliamson (2012). The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism.
