Republicans are hitching their wagon to the tea party because they identify with the tea party. Republicans are having a battle with themselves. Fringe folk like Sarah Palin suggest that if republicans just stick to their conservative guns, so to speak, then they can win. Limbaugh:
"The Republican Party needs to learn something,'' suggests Limbaugh, whom the Obama White House has tried to paint as the voice of the Republican Party. "If it goes country club blue blood moderate, it's going to lose. If it goes Reagan conservative and commits to it, it's going to win landslides. Swamp
While most republicans seem to want to espouse tea party values, white culture and all of that, they realize they can't win elections on tea party values because that's not where the nation is.
So there is a conflict among republicans. Increasingly what's happening is the tea party fringe wants to de-legitimizing government altogether, which makes things even more interesting.
Valerie Jarrett on the marginalization of the republican party:
