I think this particular rift will coalesce back together; they're arguing over who is most extreme, which is a good argument for an extremist insurgency to have. (I am not a TP supporter either, I just call 'em as I see 'em.) A fanatic movement can have endless internal schisms over the question of who's most fanatical, and still survive as a movement, growing more and more fanatical as they go -- witness the Terror in the wake of the French Revolution. They only eventually crash when they turn so hard and so often on each other that individuals become frightened to draw notice from their own supporters, because as soon as they do, they will draw enemies who can do them real harm also. Then you have people backing up and deciding that maybe this group has gone too far... and the group loses momentum and credibility as its own membership, and maybe its own leadership (what hasn't been guillotined of it), repudiate it in order to save their own skins.
Nobody's repudiating the Tea Party movement yet, because even if it's unpredictable, it can still do an individual candidate far more good than it is likely to do them harm, especially if they make all the right extremist noises. When they start destroying political careers not because someone isn't extreme enough, but because for everyone who makes extremist noises there is a rival who will make more of them, they're in at least mild trouble, but so far that has causes muffled flurries but not destroyed careers. They're in major trouble when they start killing people who have rivals in the party, rather than simply ruining their careers, because that's when the candidates have more to lose by getting the party's attention than they have to gain. Right now it's very much the other way around still.
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branchandroot
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Date: 7 June 2010 21:58 (UTC)Nobody's repudiating the Tea Party movement yet, because even if it's unpredictable, it can still do an individual candidate far more good than it is likely to do them harm, especially if they make all the right extremist noises. When they start destroying political careers not because someone isn't extreme enough, but because for everyone who makes extremist noises there is a rival who will make more of them, they're in at least mild trouble, but so far that has causes muffled flurries but not destroyed careers. They're in major trouble when they start killing people who have rivals in the party, rather than simply ruining their careers, because that's when the candidates have more to lose by getting the party's attention than they have to gain. Right now it's very much the other way around still.