Tea party losing their way, and losing elections

The tea party forces in Michigan have lost their way, and
now they’re losing their ability to win elections.

That’s the outlook provided by Ken Braun in his column
published today at MLive.

The tea partiers started out as strict fiscal conservatives,
skeptics of the various government assistance efforts that emerged in 2008-09
during the Great Recession. They were as much libertarian as Republican.

But they have moved toward a series of social issues – and a
surprisingly dovish foreign policy approach – rather than adhering to their
core mission of reducing deficits and debt.

The tea party-types in Congress could have played a
constructive role by demanding action in response to every wasteful
bureaucratic blunder uncovered in General Accountability Office and Inspector
General reports.

In Lansing, they could have played a similar role by working
closely with the Auditor General’s Office and flyspecking budget documents.

Instead, they have drifted, engaging in retrograde political
spats about gay marriage, abortion, contraception, immigration, Common Core and
a variety of conspiracy theories.

Braun, who leans libertarian, writes that the tea party has fluttered
so thoroughly that it now supports the “social authoritarian thinking of Rick
Santorum.”

Yet, the tea partiers have also shown that they can get back
to their roots, as they’ve demonstrated in the west Michigan congressional race
between incumbent Justin Amash and 
businessman Brian Ellis. That GOP primary is probably the nation’s top
tea party vs. establishment contest left before the November general election.

Here’s a taste of Braun’s column:

“Republican (Congressman) Justin Amash is everything the tea
party once was … and a whole lot of what it now is not. Still the very most
reliable of frugal fiscal conservatives, he supports the end of the Defense of
Marriage Act and says government, rather than gay couples who love each other,
is the real
threat to marriage.