Tea Party: Grass roots or head in the clouds? [View all]

http://www.dw.de/tea-party-grass-roots-or-head-in-the-clouds/a-17399005

Thanks to the Tea Party, the Arkansas Congress is Republican for the first time in 138 years. They have attacked not only Barack Obama but the Republican Party itself. But will the Tea Party really stop at nothing?

Tea Party: Grass roots or head in the clouds?

~snip~

Door to door visits, telephone calls, emails and Facebook campaigns are a perfect example of how the Tea Party organizes its political work. The party sees itself as a grass roots movement and has local groups in more than half of the districts of Arkansas. It is estimated that around 200,000 people see themselves as supporters in the large but sparsely populated state, which has just under 3 million inhabitants and is part of the conservative Bible Belt.

In Washington, the Tea Party has around 70 of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives. During the budget crisis last September, the party showed that it was capable of steering the Republican Party and paralyzing the entire country for weeks.

But Tim Jacob and many like-minded Tea Party members have completely deferred responsibility for the crisis and see President Obama's stubbornness as the cause for the shutdown.

~snip~

"I think the Tea Party reflects the values of the citizens of Arkansas," says Jacob. "They don't want a redistribution of wealth, they don't want government coming in and saying what you can own, and what you have to do, and what doctor you have to see."