The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism

Abstract On February 19, 2009, CNBC commentator Rick Santelli delivered a dramatic rant against Obama administration programs to shore up the plunging housing market. Invoking the Founding Fathers and ridiculing “losers” who could not pay their mortgages, Santelli called for “Tea Party” protests. Over the next two years, conservative activists took to the streets and airways, built hundreds of local Tea Party groups, and weighed in with votes and money to help right-wing Republicans win electoral victories in 2010. This book provides a portrait of the Tea Party. What it finds is sometimes surprising. Drawing on grassroots interviews and visits to local meetings in several regions, it finds that older,…