The Death of Them

Since the tax day tea party protests, to counter the mainstream liberal and conservative narrative of the events, I have been highlighting the reactions of participants and observers who argue that insofar as this nascent movement has been co-opted by the Republican Party and neatly fit into the parameters of duopoly politics it has been a disappointment if not also a failure. In addition, I have shown how this specific failure represents the success of duopolist ideology itself, effected by the efforts of partisans on both sides of the Republicrat/Demoblican divide who fear, perhaps more than anything else, the destabilization of the system which maintains the political status quo and the tyranny of two-party rule. Evidence that this is in fact the case continues to mount.

The Greedy Capitalist voices concern:

I have absolutely zero confidence that anything will change after these Taxday Tea Parties . . . Nothing will ever change in this country until people stop electing Democrats AND Republicans. And sadly most of those at the Tea Parties will continue doing exactly that.

Ian Cerveny, though similarly disappointed, was heartened by conversations with participants in Denver:

The entire event may have been a loss were it not for my conversations with those in the crowd who assured me that they no longer felt adequately represented by their party, so long as I no longer felt adequately represented by mine. Once again proving that bitter partisan resentment can be circumvented by ignoring leadership that panders to polarity, and instead speaking directly to one’s fellow citizens.

Finally, Christopher Dowd, at the Boston Libertarian Examiner, provides a detailed critique of duopoly politics and concludes:

If you were an attendee at one of these Tea Bag events and the end result of your experience there was that you will vote for the GOP then that event will have achieved nothing- just as a DC Beltway step n’ fetchit like Rush Limbaugh wants.

Limbaugh, of course, hailed the protests as a "great succeess," but as Dowd emphasizes, the radio talker fears the potential for third party agitation contained in them. Limbaugh warns:

My greatest concern about this is that there are -- I don't want to impugn anybody here -- but there's a possibility that this is going to lead to a third-party movement, and that's death. Third-party candidates succeed in one thing, and that is electing their alternatives. John Anderson, 1980, you had Perot in 1992. The temptation here is to go third party 'cause the Republican Party is not responsive. (Emphasis added.)

The "death" Limbaugh fears, naturally, is that of the Republican Party, and by implication that of the two-party system. The partisan ideologues of duopoly politics fear nothing more than determined opposition to the simplistic binary logic of the two party system precisely because it would be the death of them and their political hegemony over the national political discourse.