I think there's a few aspects of the Tea Party movement that haven't been mentioned or thought of.
Essentially, it's a movement of paleo-conservative populists to take control of the Republican Party, and specifically take the Republican Party away from the neo-conservatives who previously held control of it.
Remember, the United States only has two major political parties. But that doesn't mean that everyone within one of the parties agrees with everyone else. This is because the two-party system, which naturally occurs because of plurality voting systems, calls for broad platforms. This is unlike the multi-party systems found in Europe and elsewhere, where there are more political parties with stronger party discipline as compared to the U.S., but the political parties form coalitions in order to hold majorities to pass legislation.
So, to use a metaphor that a European may better understand, don't think of it as the Republican Party and the Democratic Party but rather the Republican Coalition of conservatives and the Democratic Coalition of liberals.
So the Republican Coalition is made up of several conservative/rightist factions. Among these are paleo-conservatives, neo-conservatives, libertarians, and religious conservatives. All of these factions vie for control of the Republican Party to some degree, and how well they get along varies from time to time.
For quite some time paleo-conservatives were, for the most part, in control of the Republican Party. Paleo-conservatives have among their core beliefs:
1) economic conservatism: little regulation of businesses and the economy
2) fiscal conservatism: reduction of the national debt and national deficit
3) decentralization of government: "states' rights" advocacy, and reduction of "big government"
4) strong border policy: they are against easy immigration to the United States
5) a non-interventionist foreign policy: they are against interfering in the affairs of other nations, and many want to go so far as to pull out of the United Nations
6) traditional family values: they favor conservative old-fashioned values centered around conservative ideas of family (a married couple of a man and a woman raising their children)
Neo-conservatives, on the other hand, have different values. What makes them conservative, but "neo," is that they essentially favor centralization of government in order to promote their conservative values. They share many essential values with paleo-conservatives, but choose to use the government to promote them, whereas paleo-conservatives aren't as willing to use government interventionism. The core beliefs of neo-conservatives are the following:
1) limit government support to industry: neo-conservatives support using tax revenue to support or bail-out important industries, such as the airline industry or bank industry
2) use of national debt: neo-conservatives are not as fiscally responsible, and by that I mean they do not have such a strict adherence to a balanced budget or reduction of national debt
3) centralization of government: neo-conservatives believe in the use of government programs for conservative ideals
4) soft border policy: neo-conservatives want looser immigration regulations in order to benefit from foreign workers
5) interventionist foreign policy: neo-conservatives are more willing to use diplomacy and the military to promote American interests abroad
Neo-conservatism arose after the Great Depression, and basically applied FDR's principles of politics to conservative values. They came about during the '60's and '70's, ascended during the '80's and '90's, and came to power during GWB's administration.
Look up on YouTube a video from the Daily Show that shows "Governor Bush" debating "President Bush." Effectively, it shows GWB as a governor promoting many paleo-conservative ideals while as president he promoted many neo-conservative ideals.
It was during GWB's administration that many paleo-cons were silent on the intense government interference the neo-cons were doing into areas that traditionally the conservatives were against interfering in. Among these were the No Child Left Behind Act, the airline bailouts after 9/11, the Global War on Terror, wars for regime change in Iraq, and the bailouts GWB did during the burst of the housing market bubble in 2006-07. Many paleo-cons didn't criticize the neo-cons in order to provide a more united front against their opposition from the Democratic Party.
The bailouts of Wall Street was what really re-energized the base of the paleo-cons of the Republican Party. For years, the base voters of the conservative movement had grown up on paleo-conservative beliefs. However, the faction of neo-conservatives took power and went against those ideals. So while the voter base was heavily paleo-conservatives, it was neo-conservative politicians who came into power on their behalf.
So, in many ways, the Tea Party is a faction of paleo-conservative voters who are acting out not only against Democrats and liberals but also the neo-conservatives within their party. While the neo-conservative politicians were willing to use government dollars to support industries advocated by conservatives, paleo-conservative voters don't want government dollars to support any industries, even those advocated by conservatives.
So this is what I see what the Tea Party is all about. Basically a group of paleo-conservative voters who are attempting to make themselves heard by those of their own broad-based party and reassert paleo-conservatism in the Republican Party.
eace
