Hostage-takers. Heroes. Pariahs. Patriots. Terrorists. Taking their country back. If it has done nothing else in recent months, the Tea Party movement has engendered strong opinions from the right and the left.
The movement is largely credited with the GOP takeover of the House last year and is cheered/jeered for making a routine vote on increasing the nation’s debt limit into a debate about debt and deficits.
The clout of the Tea Party is evident in the Republican presidential primary, with Mitt Romney trying to balance praise in such a way as not to turn off moderate voters, while Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Michele Bachmann offer flattering support.
“The great thing about the Tea Party movement is that Republicans of all backgrounds and interests have all coalesced around a few common themes, which is government is too big and spending too much,” Romney said Tuesday in New Hampshire.
“Everybody in the Tea Party, we love ya,” Perry said last week while campaigning in Iowa.
And Bachmann offered this assessment of the movement in an interview with CNN: “Let me say what the Tea Party stands for: It stands for the fact that we’re taxed enough already. We shouldn’t spend more money than we’re already taking in. And, third, we should act within the Constitution.”
But in gaining clout in Congress and within the GOP, the Tea Party is losing sway elsewhere. Americans’ disapproval of the Tea Party jumped from 18 percent in April of last year to 40 percent last month, according to New York Times/CBS polls.
And don’t think Democrats haven’t noticed.
In an interview with NBC’s “Today” show last week, former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs repeated what is becoming a campaign talking point that aims to cast the movement as extreme and divisive.
“The Republicans are going to have to make a choice. Are they going to swear allegiance to the Tea Party or are they going to work on behalf of the United States of America?” Gibbs said.
With that in mind, we sought out Colorado commentators from the right and left to answer the question:
Where is the Tea Party taking us?
