On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 5:41 PM, Jerry Barnes <critic...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I'm just not seeing the tea-party movement becoming the militant wing of the > Republic party, myself.
The point there, I think, was really about whether they would stay part of the Republican Party or be 3rd party. Nate Silver's site had an interesting analysis on the similarities and differences between Ross Perot's 3rd party run and the current Tea Party movement. One of the big differences was that Ross Perot garnered a significant percentage of his voters from Republicans, Democrats and Independents. The Tea Party gathers most of its support, thus far, from disaffected Republicans with some Independents and almost no Democrats. So if the Tea Party starts running a 3rd party slate, the potential drain would be more heavy on Republicans than it would Democrats. That may change of course. The two major parties have a vested interest in keeping it a two party system. In order to do so, however, they have to keep their splinter groups under control. Democrats have run into this with Ralph Nader and the Green Party. Republicans are wrestling with it now with the Tea Party and some national leaders that could go either way, like Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann. I'll be curious to see how it goes and whether 3rd party candidates with some appeal on both sides of the aisle, like Ron Paul, get back into the mix as they sense a fractured, anti-establishment electorate. Cheers, Judah ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:316553 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
