The Tea Party has been fairly active in Michigan so I was surprised to hear my brother-in-law, whose business has been devastated by the economic collapse of Florida, to speak up so strongly against the Democratic Party stimulus plans. In fact, he was quite vocal in support of the Tea Party fiscal conservative positions.
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While there is plenty of blame to go around for our present economic problems, his perception is that the decades of social giveaways and business taxes has created an economic morass where producers are punished and non-contributors are rewarded with all manner of bureaucratic support. He is a vocal Tea Party supporter, but he recognizes that the Tea Party can be its own worst enemy if it undercuts fiscally-conservative Republican candidates and results in the election of more free-spending representatives and senators.
He believes that the Tea Party should focus on any races where both Republican and Democratic parties offer up fiscally liberal candidates and run a fiscal conservative as an alternative. He does not want to split the Republican party, but rather allow the Tea Party to provide voters with a real choice in such situations. Therefore, he would have the Tea Party candidates run as Republicans if they garner more votes than the Republican candidate in the primary vote... assuming the Republican Party would agree to such a situation. Furthermore, he would not want the Tea Party to have a candidate for president. He believes the real power lies in Congress fiscally conservative members can apply the brakes to our runaway spending and debt.
That doesn't seem so "wild-eyed" to me.