Kasz216 said:
They only came to power then, and that was when they got the new name... There were plenty of conservatives who were angry and vocal about it when it came to bush though. http://www.amazon.com/Conservatives-Betrayed-Government-Republicans-Conservative/dp/1566252857 Comes to mind.... EDIT: Here's another good one. http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3184 There were a lot of conservatives talking up, espiecally at the end of his presidency. Remember, Bush's bailout failed at first... and it failed because 67% of Republicans voted against it... even when it passed the second time, over half of republicans were against it. The people just didn't start listening to them until the damage became worse. Heck, it's part of why Obama beat McCain so handily. A lot of conservatives stayed home. |
Assuming that the Ron Paul movement is the initial starting point of the Tea Party, then if you looked at the polling of that movement, you see that the #1 individuals who made up the movement, were those angry at GW Bush. It took the GOP out of power, and a name change, for Fox News, and others of those who called Ron Paul insane, to get behind it. End result now is that less than 1/3 of people in Tea Party would back Ron Paul. So, I would say it is a mix of being driven by principles, and strong partisan hate the other side because it is the other side.
