Moving Off Message: The Evolution of Tea Party Discourse, 2009-2018

• In Event: 1254 - The Evolution of Social Movements

Abstract

Since its inception, the Tea Party’s widely recognized ideological niche was its emphasis was on fiscal responsibility and government spending. No systematic effort, however, has been devoted to tracing the evolution of the movement’s discourse. This study addresses that limitation by analyzing an exhaustive enumeration of 90,522 blog posts published by five Tea Party umbrella groups between February 10, 2009 and December 10, 2018. Our results indicate that early Tea Party discourse primarily emphasized a grassroots effort to reduce domestic spending and taxation, framing the movement as representing the will and values of the American people. As the movement evolved, however, the volume of its discourse seriously declined, and a broader set of themes such as Christianity, energy and environmental issues, and foreign policy became common talking points. Over time, the Tea Party’s more recently anemic political discourse came to mirror the claims articulated by the broader conservative movement. As a consequence, the Tea Party lost its distinctive voice hastening its declining impact on American politics.

Authors

• Patrick Rafail, Tulane University

• John D. McCarthy, Pennsylvania State University