MICHAEL BARONE ON WISCONSIN: Has The Tea Party Given Up? Allah comments: “The difficulty here isn’t convincing grassroots righties that they need to get their message out 24/7, it’s figuring out how to raise that temperature again to the point where people are out in the streets, knocking on doors, volunteering, organizing, donating, and so forth. Candidly, I don’t know how you do it; the best fuel is anger, but having just won a major legislative victory in Wisconsin — imperiled though it may be — some conservatives just may not be feeling the rage right now, no matter how vicious or intimidating the left tries to be. To see just how vicious, have a look at the sort of sleazy attack ads they’re running against Wisconsin Justice David Prosser.”
Also, the Tea Party people have real jobs. Unlike the unionized public employees in Wisconsin, they can’t just call in sick so they can spend a week in the streets. Plus, from the comments: “Isn’t the chairman of the RNC from Wisconsin? Couldn’t he pony up a bit or steer some donors that way so his state doesn’t go to hell in a handbasket?” Yes, a loss there — especially a loss without a big fight — will make Rience Prebus look bad.
UPDATE: Or maybe it’s stuff like this that has Tea Partiers discouraged: “Unable to find consensus within their own ranks, House Republican leaders have begun courting moderate Democrats on a budget deal to avoid a government shutdown at the end of next week. The basic outline would involve more than $30 billion in cuts for the 2011 spending package, well short of the $61 billion initially demanded by Republican freshmen and other conservatives.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Jody Green writes: “Can’t speak for the whole tea party but I can speak for many of those with jobs, kids, limited resources and true love for this country. The issues facing this country at the federal level are so large and complex that only honest people have a chance of fixing the problems. We all know that we are not dealing with an honest opposition. We are dealing with people who are only trying to maintain their disgusting grip on the levers of power. See Shumer just today. This country is about to crash in a horrible “Man caused disaster” and we can not get that message to the vast majority of people. Our leadership plays games while we know the Titanic is sinking. The question is do we actually get pitch forks and march on Washington and gig them (If we did we would be terrorists) or do we hunker down and prepare for the worse. Unfortunately, most people are doing the later and it is only a matter of time before they will be proven right. If you publish this, I want our leaders in Washington to hear only one thing. Stop the games and the power grabs and do what it right. The future of your country and your children/grandchildren are depending on you and you are play politics. Shame on you. Wake up and do your duty.”