Mark Shields Quotes
It's tempting to remember that the Tea Party had a peak and then the Republican Party establishment sort of beat it back down. And so these things are won in a day.
Shields, Mark. PBS NewsHour, Public Broadcasting Service, 2014.
Republican Party primary elections had become very contentious. The radical right and the Tea Party, though a minority of the party, had the power to destroy almost any Republican candidate’s chances. So those Republican political candidates were forced to pander to the extreme right and then try and backtrack to the center for the general election. As a result, few people believed the statements of Republican office seekers as no one knew what they really believed including members of their own party, Bush, no longer running for any political position, found himself with much more credibility and influence in the party than those who were running for office. The problem of appealing to party extremes was not unique to the Republicans at that time, but the degree and extent was unprecedented accounting for the distrust.
Actually, it was the Tea Party members of the Republican Party whose unprecedented willingness to risk the full faith and credit of the United States when the majority of the Republican legislators and almost all the Democrats were not, who held the required Debt Ceiling Increase hostage to getting their legislative way. But in this particular debate and legislation the Democrats gained nothing except that the anger of the American People was much greater against the Republicans than the Democrats, many of whose usual supporters thought that the Democrats had been totally intimidated by the Tea Party.
Mark Stephen Shields is an American political columnist and commentator. He has worked in leadership positions for many Democratic candidates' election campaigns.
