As many of you know, in the early years of Legal Insurrection we were part of the Tea Party movement.
I emphasize “movement” because we never affiliated with any groups — which turned out to be a wise choice because some of them turned out to be the types of grifters that have plagued the “right.”
I attended and reported on some Tea Party rallies in upstate NY.
Our archives dating back to 2010 document the vicious smear campaigns not only from leftist groups like the now-defunct Think Progress, but also establishment Republicans. In a hint of what was to come against Trump, the IRS was weaponized against the Tea Party.
The Tea Party was at heart a movement of people who just wanted to be left alone in the face of accelerating governmental mandates and instrusion – epitomized by the Obamacare mandate which forced you to buy private health insurance policies. It didn’t matter how much you tried to insulate yourself, you had to buy the policy.
The Obamacare mandate eventually was saved by John Roberts in the 2012 Supreme Court decision holding the mandate fell within Congress’s taxing power.
The Tea Party eventually fell by the wayside unable to withstand the pressure and from internal divisions.
Which brings me to a tweet by Prof. Randy Barnett about how suppression of the Tea Party gave way to MAGA.
This @politico analysis of Charlie Kirk’s role in the conservative-MAGA movement is informative. But it doesn’t get what happened to “Tea Party libertarianism.” The Dems demonized and suppressed the Tea Party constitutionalists with everything they had. MAGA was the response.
To which I responded.
True, I was part of Tea Party movement as was @LegInsurrection and witnessed how we were called Nazis for opposing Obamacare. Tea Party was a “leave me alone” movement, they didn’t leave us alone, and now it’s FAFO.
It’s one of those “don’t wish too hard for something, you might get it” historical sequences.
[Featured Image: Legal Insurrection readers at Tea Party rally 2013]
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