Will Tea Party And Gop Do Anything for next 2 Years? plus Democratic Strategy

Now, the Tea Party was successful in a sense, in certainly media coverage, and they got a few candidates in there. Now, the Tea Party, don't kid yourself, is a cultural movement, it is not just political. And that's very clear from the rallies, and I'm not saying just look at the racist signs, but it is clearly a cultural movement. The culture, the Tea Party has a very specific culture associated with it. Issues may not be at the center of that, as we know. Smaller government, less spending, OK. But... Angry people who want something to change drastically. That's right. So it is a cultural issue. Now, some GOPers are saying the Tea Party would exist even if McCain had won or if Bush had a third term. And then sometimes they say, well, illegal immigration concerns, that's a reason why. Immigration has not been in the public discourse involving the Tea Party for months. Maybe at the beginning, but it's certainly... Am I wrong, Louis? No one in the Tea Party or their candidates have mentioned immigration in any significant way in the leadup to the election. No, it just doesn't seem to... I don't think it's really been a huge issue since the presidential election. Well, now what is the question? A friend of the show, comedian Jeff Kreisler, wrote on his blog today, "As the ebb and flow of politics takes us closer to the jagged rocks, should I keep screaming, "We're going to crash!" or just relax for the ride?" This is representative of the way that some people are thinking about this. Is this getting so absurd and it's going to clearly go downhill for these Republicans and Tea Party members who have won that we should just sit aside and let things go to hell, or does this mean we need to get involved and organize? What do you think, Louis? Well, what can we really do? -What kinds of crazy legislation do people think they're going to pass. Yeah.... -Is going to pass. OK. Well, this brings up an interesting issue. Let's go first to that. Let's take Rand Paul, for example. Rand Paul is not going to be able to do anything that he has run on. Here's an example. He wants to eliminate the Department of Education. He constantly touted that during his campaign. There is no chance Rand Paul is going to eliminate the Department of Education. Rand Paul wants the Bush tax cuts made permanent. It's not going to happen. It's just not going to happen. He is opposed to abortion, and he wants a human life amendment, and a life at conception act. He also opposes abortion in cases of *** and ***. Sorry, Rand, not going to happen. Right, just because one Tea Partier has radical ideas, it doesn't mean they'll be implemented at any time. That's right. So that's the question. Now, once we get to 2012, will the fact that 95% of what the Tea Party ran on and claimed would be good for the country will not happen, mark my words, it will not happen, who will that go against? -Initially... -I see this going two ways. Right. This could further separate the Tea Partiers from the Republicans. -OK, I'll tell you why you're wrong... -Hold on. I mean, they could say, "Well, we couldn't accomplish this due to too much opposition." -From who? -From other Republicans as well. -All right. -Right? OK, that's one way it could go. What's the other way? Or it'll just be recognized as a complete fail, what can you do? They can't do anything about that. OK. So here's the situation. Number one, the Tea Party is going to -- one of two things will happen. The Tea Party will go away as we know it and the Republicans that... the candidates that have won that will now be in the House and Senate will essentially next time be running as Republicans, no more mention of the Tea Party whatsoever, or, and much more likely to me, is the Tea Party, in the interests of political expediency, building political capital, in the interests of having made promises that are downright absurd and would never, ever pass, will just be kind of wrapped into the mainstream Republican Party, they will change their views, and they will then say, come 2012, well, you know what, we didn't get things done, we have been welcomed by the Republican Party, and we couldn't get these things done because you know what? We control the House, but the Democrats control the Senate and the Democrats control the White House, so it is their fault still that we were not able to turn things around. That could definitely happen. And I think right off the bat, I think just because Tea Partiers were elected that the Tea Party will definitely pick up steam, pick up some steam, right off the bat. Off the bat, you're right, but the things they have promised are just not going to happen. And in many cases, there is no position, there are no platforms, in a sense. Now, here's what has to happen with the Democrats. Obama has to not only do more, but he has to make sure people know that he is doing more. Democrats need to be united and clear, not starting in 2011 or when the campaigns get going, starting today through the 2012 election, which by the way, we're only a few months from starting to hear about. Take credit and place blame. And what I mean by that, let's take the health care example, the health care situation as an example. In the middle of the conflict with the GOP and opposition from the GOP, the narrative arose about internal conflict about the public option, right? You remember this. Some Democrats want the public option, some don't. Right. This is horrible for the Democratic Party. It opens the door to more criticism, it plays directly into the Republicans' hands. Now, to follow through the health care example the whole way, even after it passes, the Obama administration does a poor job of taking credit for what they did pass. Barack Obama did a good job of this when he was on Jon Stewart last week, but that's too late. I know, plenty of speeches did mention health care. They needed a full-court media blitz including, you know, bringing people to the forefront who now have care only because of what they passed, roundtables with business owners who are now able to provide health care to their employees. There was none of that. And if there was, it certainly wasn't making it into the mainstream media. So Democrats need to get ahead of the curve and say, "You know what? Here's what we're doing and here's why it's good," and here's why the people that you voted in, the Tea Parties, the Tea Partiers, the ones that aren't going back to bagging now that they've lost the election, here's why you don't want to vote for them, or any other Republicans, by the way. And they have to say, "Here's what we've done." You have to use numbers and statistics to your advantage. You have to speak in terms of numbers and say, we created this many jobs, we lowered the deficit this much, we did this with health care. Well, and you have to do more than that, though, because just saying we prevented this many extra jobs from being lost didn't really work this time around. 85% or so voted, a majority... I don't think anything the Democrats could've done would've worked this time around. You may be right. But I think in 2012 it will depend on the Democrats. This time, it was just damage control, lose as little as possible. -Right. -But next time, the Democrats will have an option. Let's take a break, when we come back, I will tell you why bipartisanship is over. Go onto DavidPakman.com, vote, "How effective will the Tea Party winners be at passing the change they promised?" The David Pakman Show at DavidPakman.com. Midweek Politics is made possible by listeners like you and by Greenfield Savings Bank, building a strong community one account at a time, with neighborhood offices in Greenfield, Amherst, Conway, Shelburne Falls, South Deerfield, and Turners Falls, and online at GreenfieldSavings.com, by The Daily Hampshire Gazette and GazetteNET.com, connecting our communities with local news and information, by DIF Design, specializing in custom business websites at DIFDesign.com. Find out more about underwriting Midweek Politics at MidweekPolitics.com. (Captions by www.direct-translation-services.com)