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More Tea, please!

Max Hofmann / bkJune 12, 2014

The Tea party's crazy uncle has once again turned the Republican Party's family get-together on its head. And that has its good sides, says DW's Max Hofmann.

https://p.dw.com/p/1CH1i

To be clear: I would never vote for a Tea party politician. It is a movement that profits from the political ignorance, racism, and homophobia that occupies some sections of the American population. It is repugnant - but it fulfils a democratic function often overlooked in Europe.

Eric Cantor, Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives, was once considered the official spearhead of the Tea party, a conservative thorn in the flesh of the White House. But recently, he decided to support the reform of US immigration law - one of Obama's prestige projects, an issue with which the president wanted to confirm his place in the history books.

But for many analysts here in the US, it was soon clear that Tea party supporters were out to punish Cantor for his readiness to compromise - as limited as that compromise was.

Now, as the dust slowly settles, it's obvious: It's not that easy.

Cantor was, regardless of his position on immigration, extremely unpopular in his electoral district. His image as a Tea party rebel long gone, he has been dismissed as just another member of the establishment the Tea party hates so much.

Equally, however, polls showed that a majority of Tea party supporters in his precinct actually supported immigration reform. But what his defeat showed above all was that established politicians shouldn't get too comfortable in the backrooms of Washington - even if they think they carry the Tea party seal of approval.

This is the true value of the Tea party, which is still not an official party, but a political movement. In America's two-party system, Democrats and Republicans have often - when neither can take political control - maintained a cozy "I'll-scratch-your-back-if-you-scratch-mine" arrangement. That is one of the reasons President George W. Bush was allowed to incur a historic public debt. A few Tea party supporters might have done Congress some good back then, for fiscal discipline remains at the top of their program. That, incidentally, is why German Chancellor Angela Merkel can count many Tea party supporters among her fans.

Of course, it takes more than uncompromising demands for austerity to govern the USA - but at the same time, it makes little sense to simultaneously condemn public debt and demonize the Tea party.

As crazy uncles at family get-togethers often do, the movement occasionally represents legitimate public demands often ignored by power-hungry politicians. Eric Cantor has found that out.