Meghan McCain says her Arizona senator dad is “depressed” and “frustrated” with the tea party faction of the Republican Party, which she called “the hyper-conservative wing.”
The comments were part of Meghan’s promo for her new show, which no one will watch, Raising McCain.
As a Tea Party activist, I am all for making both McCains even more frustrated.
One of the most important developments in the new conservative movement has been encouraging regular Americans to participate directly in politics.
In California, that has meant many have gotten involved in local Republican groups and have become versed in the ways of state party politics and its Byzantine rules.
Recently, the Tea Party California Caucus formed in response to the state Republican Party’s continued lack of enthusiasm for formulating and implementing conservative policy.
On Canto Talk, I recently had a chance to interview its founder Randall Jordan, as well as California Tea Party coordinator Dawn Wildman. The caucus recently participated in the California Republican convention in Anaheim; Jordan says they met with “100 % more success” than they were anticipating and now the GOP establishment “can’t ignore us and knows we are not going away.”
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Wildman expands on the point, describing the level of enthusiasm she saw for the caucus at the convention:
“The was the hottest ticket of the weekend. And, the most interesting part of it was that it was 100% unadulterated tea party all the way and there was nothing the establishment could do about it.”
Jordan noted that another success was the passage of 4 of the 5 resolutions that the caucus introduced in Anaheim. These resolutions were:
According to Jordan, the establishment “took the teeth” out of some of these introduced resolutions. However, the Tea Party members now “know how to play the game” and plan to come back with even stronger resolutions at the next convention.
Additionally, the Tea Party California Caucus is looking to 2014 with an eye toward local elections:
“We are going to focus on local races, going for service districts, school boards, city council seats, in order to get as many tea party members elected as possible,” said Jordan.
Finally, I wrapped it up by noting that the Tea Party has been entirely vindicated in its stance about Obamacare, if the complete failure of the roll-out is any indication. Jordan notes that his group spent only $5000 on their website and it is entirely functional.
The caucus plans on meeting in November to make even more plans.
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