Why was the tea party hijacked by republicans?

In a way, the Republican Party was hijacked but not exactly by the Tea Party. What happened was neoconservatism. THAT is the element that has hijacked the Republican Party.

The Tea Party is just the most recent variation in the Republican party to be co-opted by the neoconservatives. These are the exact same folks that told us George Bush was a fiscal conservative and a socially conscious "compassionate" conservative. But after advocating for and promoting the Iraq war, and then having some operatives get pinched on espionage charges during the first term of the Bush (2) presidency.

Neoconservatives went to ground, abandoning or leaving many positions in and around the Pentagon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_S... The problem is that when you look back , these guys were EMBEDDED in the Republican party and have been for a very long time (since the early Reagan administration), and they have been causing some of the most egregious screwups that Republican administrations have had to suffer through. (Iran Arms for Hostages, Contra Military Support, and even working against the Soviet missile treaties during the 1980's and 1990's) Contrary to the revision of their own history, they - at the time - viewed President Reagan as a weak-willed compromiser against the Soviets.

However the Republican party was alot healthier in those days, there were VERY serious thinkers , Brent Skowcroft, George Bush Sr. , James Baker, William Buckley and others who were able to check the ambitions of these guys. After George W.

Bush (Sr) dared to defy the Israeli Right on the issue of settlements in delaying loan guarantees, the Neoconservatives (Bill Krystol most notably) started warming up to Candidate Bill Clinton, and promptly labeled President Bush an antisemite. The Clinton's, used the neoconservative influence to get elected, but were visceral in their exclusion of the Neoconservatives from any policy-making decisions or positions. This hatred between the Clintons and certain neoconservatives remains to this day.

Going to ground in the early 1990's and returning to the conservative movement proved VERY productive. Polling and focus groups allowed the Neoconservatives to target highly specific "agenda items" that got certain groups to VOTE and participate in elections. So in less than 18 months, the Republican Party energized and took control of congress, with the new Evangelical "base" of Christian Conservatives voting in vast numbers, could basically easily overwhelm the more moderate / centrist Democratic or other Republican candidates.

This formula worked well , up until about 2004, when after a series of scandals involving male Republican candidates, involved with male pages and other staff, the notion of "family values" was difficult to sell. Coupled with the defacto torture policies and the ambivalence over the Iraq War, the Evangelical movement largely stayed home in 2004 & 2006. The Neoconservatives again went to ground, George Bush had more or less destroyed the "branding" of the GOP as a "family values" party, but what has happened in the last few years is nothing short of political genius.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-s... In about 2006-2007, Ron Paul an outsider libertarian was gaining relatively HUGE traction for the amount of money being put in. The problem was two-fold, how do you re-integrate the lost Evangelical energy of the party, and also possibly re-integrate more "radical" elements from the GOP that had been removed in the 1960's, (The John Birch Society was ridiculed and openly barred from attending Republican conferences in the 1960's through the 1990's).

The Tea Party Movement is the spearhead of a much larger Conservative movement. We are going to retake control of the Republican Party and the Republican agenda. To us, it has already been hijacked by the RINO's.

Time to take it back. If you are a Liberal/Progressive and you believe in your convictions, you should be glad to see this. I mean, wouldn't it be great for you to see us take over and fail miserably?

If you or any Liberal believes what you profess to believe you should welcome this opportunity to see your policies which have been enacted put up against Conservative policies. As a Conservative, I am more than willing to put what we believe to a practical test. Bush was not a Conservative, Obama is not a Conservative.

Look at were we are now. Let's try the only thing we have not tried; Conservatism. Who knows, you may like it.

I remember the Reagan years. Plenty of "Reagan Democrats" loved him and his policies. We had a pretty good run, too.

Unfortunately, the RINO's and Liberals undermined the solid Conservative base Reagan laid out. You just may find, in a few years time, you are a Palin Democrat. I selected Palin, because she is the one Republican that is getting the same treatment Reagan got from the Democrats and media.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.