As we edge closer to spending $1.9 trillion on COVID-19 relief, it is worth noting that a less generous package presented by the last Democratic president led to a political backlash that gave us Donald Trump. Twelve years ago this past week, CNBC’s Rick Santelli delivered his famous “rant” that inspired the rise of the Tea Party movement.
The source of Santelli’s outrage was a $787 billion stimulus package that, at the time, felt like a huge amount, and the $75 billion aid for homeowners with funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). While many of my Never Trump conservative brethren still see this movement as a largely positive phenomenon, I have long argued that there was a straight line from the Tea Party to MAGA. For sane conservatives, this was the beginning of the end.
Truth be told, the rise of the Tea Party had more to do with hating Barack Obama than it did with practical or constitutional concerns about spending. In this regard, the fact that Joe Biden arouses less hostility from the right redounds to his benefit—and suggests we may not soon witness a similar backlash.
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Why does Biden evoke less anxiety on the right? It could have something to do with Obama’s race—or their differing styles. Additionally, Trump’s big-spending ways have made it harder for Republicans to suddenly be outraged by spending.
Regardless, the GOP that Biden will have to contend with is a product of this very consequential backlash. A dozen years after its inception, it seems obvious that the Tea Party was a bridge to Trumpism. It led conservatives toward a style of politics that fetishized populist rallies, fear-based appeals, identity politics, victimhood, moral relativism, xenophobia, anti-intellectualism, a conspiratorial resentment of the “ruling class,” and even the weird sort of rebellion cosplay that was on full display this past Jan. 6, 2021, along with the Gadsden flag.
Prior to the Tea Party, these impulses were largely foreign, if not anathema, to modern, mainstream conservatives. In fact, one of the reasons I became a conservative was that I disliked and feared these things.
Now, it is ironic that a Tea Party that fashioned itself specifically as libertarian/anti-authoritarian, opposed to massive spending, and a movement of peaceful protests where attendees would read from the Constitution, would metastasize into MAGA—a cult-like movement that spent record amounts of money and cast aside the Constitution and the rule of law in an attempt to overthrow a free and fair election.
The truth is that their philosophical or public policy arguments were either an unconsciously secondary concern (if you’re being generous) or a mere fig leaf (if you’re being cynical). Over time, the Tea Party morphed into MAGA.
To be sure, this evolution did not happen overnight. Some principled Tea Party folks dropped off, and some very unsavory MAGA folks were brought to the dance by Trump. But it’s safe to say the Tea Party ethos paved the path to Trumpism. “I thought they were voting for libertarian Republicans,” Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie said, looking back on the campaigns of Ron and Rand Paul. “But after some soul searching I realized… they weren’t voting for libertarian ideas—they were voting for the craziest son of a bitch in the race. And Donald Trump won best in class, as we had up until he came along.”
Speaking of which, in the wake of Santelli’s rant, the 2010 midterm elections introduced us to names such as Christine O’Donnell and Sharron Angle—the kinds of candidates who would fit in perfectly with today’s Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert GOP. In fairness, the Tea Party movement also gave us Pat Toomey and Marco Rubio. At the time, I saw these as very positive developments. (One out of two ain’t bad.) Overall, the 2010 midterms were great for Republicans’ electoral fortunes—proving once again that short-term gains are sometimes deceiving.
Two years later, Mitt Romney was able to fend off candidates like Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain on his way to the GOP nomination. But Romney’s infamous “makers vs. takers” rhetoric that helped re-elect Barack Obama was the kind of gaffe invited by the Tea Party zeitgeist. Clearly, Romney was swept up in the ethos and wasn’t being true to himself. At least, that’s not how he acted as governor, nor later as senator.
Four years later, Trump would be the nominee. The rest is history. Today’s Republican Party—a party that won’t distance itself from a president who tried to overthrow a free and fair election and incited an insurrection—is almost unrecognizable from the party that gave us Ronald Reagan’s sunny optimism in the 1980s, George W. Bush’s compassionate conservatism in 2000, and John McCain’s nomination in 2008. And while there are numerous trends, reasons, and people to blame, the culpability of Rick Santelli and the movement he helped unleash are wildly underrated.
This anniversary was not to celebrate.
