The New York Times Magazine has discovered what everyone who has ever been to a Tea Party meeting already knew: tea parties are a coalition of social conservatives and libertarians. Both are fiscally conservative and so the tea parties focus on fiscal issues and agree to disagree on social issues.
Does this mean the tea parties are losing influence? No, but it does mean that the tea parties will have little influence on the Republican presidential nomination (which can’t be counted as a loss of influence because they never influenced one before). Both sides dislike Romney, but the social conservatives support Santorum while the libertarians support Paul.
Unfortunately for those who are not neoconservatives, that means Romney is likely to be the nominee. But the Antiplanner doesn’t think the president is as important as Congress, and the tea parties are likely to remain influential in many Congressional and local elections.
