Archive for the ‘Tea Party’ Category

Will the Tea Party of 2022 Emerge from the Debate over Schools? – Yahoo News

One of the last public opinion surveys conducted before last weeks Virginia governors election was released by the Suffolk University Political Research Center on October 26. Its headline results mirrored those of other polls that dropped around that time: Education, usually a political afterthought, had become one of voters biggest concerns leading in the final weeks of the campaign. And among respondents who prioritized schools above other policy questions, Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe was losing badly to Republican Glenn Youngkin, even as likely voters deadlocked overall.

Two weeks later, after a hectic Election Day in which McAuliffe was denied his bid for a second gubernatorial term and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy barely survived his own brush with an unheralded Republican challenger, the polls findings offer one explanation of what went wrong for Democrats in their first electoral test of the Biden era.

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David Paleologos, Suffolks chief pollster, noted that Democrats have traditionally been the party entrusted by voters to oversee K-12 schools. Healthcare and education have been the two issue pillars for the party in the minds of the public, countering Republicans traditional edge on taxes and national security. But in Virginia, at least, one of their supports had given way; while 75 percent of healthcare-focused respondents in Suffolks poll approved of Joe Bidens performance as president, just 38 percent of education-focused respondents did.

Theres a broader potential problem for Democrats when Republican candidates can even be competitive forget leading among those primarily concerned with education, said Paleolgos. I think that is something that should give Democrats pause.

Related: After Campaign Turns to K-12 Issues, Democrats Lose Virginia Governors Race

The results of the 2021 election cycle will take more than a few weeks to parse, as county-level returns are dissected by number-crunchers in both parties. And the importance of education must also be weighed against structural challenges that couldnt have been avoided; dating back to the 1970s, the party holding the White House almost never wins the Virginia governorship, while no Democrat has been reelected as New Jerseys governor under any circumstances.

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But two things have become clear in light of the Democrats dismal results. The first is that losing their advantage on a signature issue can cost them dearly, even in blue-trending states where they have nominated popular candidates. The second is that both sides now have an incentive to make education a major priority in 2022, when control over the U.S. House, the Senate, and 36 governorships will be at stake.

Joanne Weiss

And the publics discontent with school systems, ranging from their performance during COVID to their handling of controversial subjects like race and gender, shows no sign of abating. Joanne Weiss, an education consultant who served as chief of staff to Education Secretary Arne Duncan in the Obama White House, said that parents fear and anger had first been triggered by the disruptions of the pandemic. But the gradual decline in COVID cases and deaths wont necessarily bring an end to their outrage, she added.

COVID response required nimbleness and creativity that the education system was incapable of giving, Weiss said in an email. So while COVID was the spark that ignited it, that pile of kindling has been sitting there, unattended, for years. Even if COVID were to magically disappear tomorrow, the smoldering would continue.

Virginia Republicans were talking about education throughout their gubernatorial primary and into the general election. But it took a Democrat to bring the issue to national attention.

McAuliffe, a longtime Democratic campaign operative who first served as the states governor from 2014 to 2018, infamously said in a September debate that he didnt believe parents should be telling schools what they should teach. The tossed-off remark, made in response to several high-profile cases of Virginia parents objecting to the inclusion of controversial materials in classrooms and school libraries, quickly proved to be the decisive political miscue of 2021.

In a stroke, McAuliffes words helped consolidate multiple strands of public disapproval (in a post-election interview with Politico, two senior Youngkin campaign strategists pointed to the moment as the piece that tied it all together). Many parents objected to Virginias generally deliberate pace of reopening schools to in-person instruction; others instigated as much by local curricular debates as national messaging campaigns by Fox News and other conservative outlets sought to ban instruction of race issues that has been grouped under the label of critical race theory. Both were invigorated by the former governors apparent dismissal of family concerns.

Stephen Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., said that while McAuliffes campaign eventually attempted to clarify his meaning, the efforts were too little, too late.

It really became the core of the Youngkin campaign, Farnsworth said. The campaign almost entirely morphed into a conversation about parents rights in education once McAuliffe made his misstatement.

Related: Q&A: Education Commentator Andrew Rotherham on the Virginia Governors Race and the K-12 Peril Facing Democrats

Keri Rodrigues, a Massachusetts Democrat and former labor organizer who leads the National Parents Union, said the defeat that followed was proof that Democrats had taken their legacy as champions of public education for granted. Though strongly critical of activists attempting to curb the influence of critical race theory, Rodrigues has also pilloried Democrats for their relationships with teachers unions (McAuliffe campaigned with American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten during the races final days) and argued that the party had failed to hold educational systems accountable during the pandemic.

We saw the catastrophic failure of our nations public education system happen in our living rooms, and we were left to fend for ourselves, Rodrigues said in an email. Since that point, Democrats have outright rejected any criticism of the performance of these systems or recovery efforts while parents and families have continued to be left struggling with their concerns unheard.

Courtesy of Keri Rodrigues

Democrats running in both state-level and congressional races next year will benefit from the example of McAuliffes gaffe, and Farnsworth theorized that they could avoid similar missteps by calling for school governance to be led by a partnership between parents and education professionals. Moreover, the party will still have the opportunity to pass a host of family- and school-related initiatives through its Build Back Better legislation, including universal preschool, paid family leave, and a permanent expansion of the Child Tax Credit. Given a year to advertise those achievements and watch COVIDs threat to public health slowly diminish, Democrats could once again seize the initiative on a policy area they have historically dominated.

According to polling data provided by Gallup, Inc., the public has trusted Democrats more on education almost continuously for the last three decades. Election-year polls from 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, and 2016 all found respondents favoring Democratic presidential candidates to manage schools, usually by double-digit margins. (Then-president George W. Bush took a late lead on the issue in his 2004 contest with John Kerry, and no data could be found for the 2012 presidential election at the time of publication.)

Related: Administration Welcomes Passage of Infrastructure Bill, But Hurdles Remain for Rest of Bidens Domestic Agenda

But Paleologos said that Democrats failure in Virginia had already consigned next years crop of candidates to answering press questions about whether parents should have input in how schools are run. Pointing to past Republican successes with pre-election platforms like 1994s Contract with America, he predicted the GOP would seek to use education as a wedge to split liberal Democrats from the center.

Even if you pass some really progressive education legislation, Republican candidates are going to force Democrats to make some commitment to parental control over K-12 schools, Paleologos said. Now, a smart Democratic candidate would say, Yeah, Ill sign a Contract with Parents, but then theyre going to be at odds with their progressive base.

Youngkins victory served as a proof of concept for the notion that a deft Republican could win votes by crafting his closing argument around schools. But it also cast doubt on Democrats own campaign strategy of tying opponents to Donald Trump at every opportunity.

David Paleologos

Paleologos observed that the first-time candidates template one that could be exported next year to battleground states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Maine, where Democratic governors will be running for reelection was to win back middle-class voters in the suburbs while one-upping Trump in rural areas, even without having Trump next to him. Its unknown how much Trump, who has supercharged Republican turnout in two national races, intends to campaign with GOP hopefuls next year, and recent polling suggests that he remains a deeply divisive figure. But Youngkin enjoyed a surge in downstate support even in Trumps absence, riding the former presidents endorsement to nearly half a million more votes than the Republican gubernatorial nominee received in 2017.

Republicans hopes for a red wave will rest on the enthusiasm of their base, which has shown itself to be extremely animated by K-12 issues. A Gallup poll released in August found that 73 percent of American parents were either somewhat or completely satisfied with the quality of their childrens education, roughly in line with previous years. But a detailed breakdown of the results provided by the organization found that 34 percent of Republicans described themselves as completely dissatisfied with schools, by far the highest level for that group since 2001. Twenty-five percent of independents said the same, representing a seven-point jump since before the pandemic began.

If the stage is set for a national push, the party seems ready to make one. In the immediate aftermath of last weeks elections, at the same time Democrats took steps to finalize the framework of their Build Back Better legislation, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced that Republicans would soon introduce a parents bill of rights to promote transparency in curricular content and protect the participation of parents in school governance.

Tea Party protestors in Washington, 2010. Anti-CRT activists could look to the Obama-era movement as a model for their efforts to oust Democrats in 2022. (Brooks Kraft LLC / Getty Images)

The question is whether such initiatives are the stuff that majorities are made on. The last midterm wave favoring Republicans came in 2010, when right-wing activists incensed over deficits, government spending, and Obamacare coalesced in an amorphous movement known as the Tea Party. A revival of that feat will require coordination and skilled messaging, Farnsworth said, but education could offer a useful conduit for conservative energies that exist already.

In many ways, the critical race theory debate of 2021 is just the latest version of the death panel conversation from Obamacare, or the Willie Horton story of 1988. The question isnt whether this is an accurate portrayal of whats going on, the question is whether this can be weaponized to benefit Republicans. In 2021, as in 2010, as in 1988, the answer is yes.

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Will the Tea Party of 2022 Emerge from the Debate over Schools? - Yahoo News

Feehery: The next Republican wave is coming | TheHill – The Hill

In my short three decades in Washington, I have seen two huge Republican waves and I am anticipating a third one a year from now.

The latest generic ballot has Republicans up a touchdown and a field goal, the largest margin I have ever witnessed. If the GOP screws this one up, it will be the most epic fail in history.

There were signs that 1994 was going to be a big year for Republicans, but the establishment had become so used to Democrats running the House that nobody truly believed that then-Rep. Newt GingrichNewton (Newt) Leroy GingrichMORE (Ga.) could take the Speakers gavel. Those signs included an incompetent Clinton administration, abject corruption in the House, a favorable issue set for a center-right country, and a motivated and energized Republican conference.

It became pretty clear by the fall of 2009 that the shelf-life of the Democratic majority was expiring in November of 2010. Instead of focusing on the economy, the Obama administration spent all their political capital on health care reform. House Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy PelosiChristie: Trump rhetoric about stolen election led to Jan. 6 attack Biden signs trillion infrastructure bill into law Defiant Bannon warns of 'misdemeanor from hell' for Biden MORE (D-Calif.) made her moderates walk the plank on climate change legislation that never went anywhere in the Senate. And former President ObamaBarack Hussein ObamaEquilibrium/Sustainability Presented by Southern Company COVID-19 kills snow leopards at US zoo David Axelrod calls Rittenhouse judge 'defense attorney on the bench' Manchin set to make or break Biden's climate pledge MORE himself became a polarizing figure who inspired a Tea Party revolt.

The key difference between the 1994 and 2010 came with the governing agenda. Gingrich had one and Speaker John BoehnerJohn Andrew BoehnerRift widens between business groups and House GOP Juan Williams: Pelosi shows her power Debt ceiling games endanger US fiscal credibility again MORE (R-Ohio) didnt. The Contract with America had a specific set of promises that were achievable if you looked at the fine print, and those promises started with a complete overhaul of the House of Representatives. The Tea Party, on the other hand, was an incoherent jumble of the unachievable (repealing ObamaCare) and the incomprehensible (keep the governments hands off of Medicare) as the movement devolved into a mass of petty grifters who were using the passion of the moment to make a few bucks.

The next Republican wave will be a reaction to the progressive movements monumental overreach. As always happens, Republicans fail because they try to do too little, while the Democrats fail because they always try to do way too much. President Biden campaigned like he was former President Clinton in his second term but has tried to govern like he is FDR, LBJ or Obama.

The Biden bait-and-switch is only part of the Democrats problem. The American people dont want more government. Sure, they will take the handouts, because free money is hard to resist. But voters understand instinctively that there is no such thing as a free lunch. They blame the Democrats and the president for inflation and high gas prices (rightfully so), they blame the Democrats and the president for the risk of more government restrictions on freedom (rightfully so), they blame the Democrats and the president for failing schools (ex. the Glenn YoungkinGlenn YoungkinInfrastructure updates only get us halfway we need Build Back Better bill, too Kemp makes pitch to conservatives, independents in new campaign ad GOP looks to expand state legislature candidate tracking program ahead of midterms MORE victory in Virginia), and they blame the whole progressive movement for cancel culture, wokeness, defunding of the police and a general disdain of America and its cultural norms.

The left has become anti-American, anti-capitalist, anti-free speech, anti-liberty, pro-globalist, pro-lockdown, pro-socialist, pro-COVID-19 hysteria, pro-climate hysteria, pro-mask and pro-gender-bending. They have become very easy to run against.

That explains why Republicans will win in November. All the GOP has to say is we are not them and they will have a very good election. We are not crazy. We are not socialist. We are not hysterical. We are pro-family, pro-freedom, pro-economic growth, pro-getting people back to work.

The Republicans dont need a crazy agenda full of promises they cant keep. They dont need to relitigate the 2020 presidential election. They shouldnt spend anytime looking backward.

The Democrats believe that their only hope is to make this election about former President TrumpDonald TrumpHouse Freedom Caucus elects Rep. Scott Perry as new chairman Meadows 'between a rock and a hard space' with Trump, Jan. 6 panel On The Money Biden caps off infrastructure week MORE. The media likes that strategy because Trump is very good for ratings. But actually the only thing that will help the Democratic Party now is if they turn away from the progressive nonsense that has driven Bidens poll ratings to historic lows. That doesnt seem very likely. And so, prepare yourself for the next Republican wave. Its coming to a town near you.

Feehery is a partner at EFB Advocacy and blogs at http://www.thefeeherytheory.com. He served as spokesman to former Speaker Dennis HastertJohn (Dennis) Dennis HastertFeehery: The GOP could have done better Feehery: The theme song of the counterrevolution Feehery: Critical thinking theory MORE (R-Ill.), as communications director to former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) when he was majority whip and as a speechwriter to former House Minority Leader Bob Michel (R-Ill.).

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Feehery: The next Republican wave is coming | TheHill - The Hill

Boozy Alice in Wonderland tea party with bespoke cocktails and riddles opens in Leeds – Yorkshire Evening Post

The Alice: An Immersive Cocktail Experience has opened a pop-up venue on Swinegate, where guests can enjoy sweet treats and bespoke cocktails.

The event has been a hit across the world, selling out in Sydney and Melbourne before beginning a USA tour - and now it has landed in Leeds.

The Wonderland tea party is now open for bookings until January 30, 2022.

Guests can create their own liquid concoctions under the watchful eye of The Mad Hatter, play croquet with flamingos, paint the roses red and devour an 'Eat Me' cake.

There will be riddles and challenges to unlock all the ingredients to create enchanted teapot cocktails.

The 90-minute alternate reality experience includes two bespoke cocktails and the 'Eat Me' cake for 28 per person. You can book here.

Support the YEP and become a subscriber today. Enjoy unlimited access to local news and the latest on Leeds United, With a digital subscription, you see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Click here to subscribe.

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Boozy Alice in Wonderland tea party with bespoke cocktails and riddles opens in Leeds - Yorkshire Evening Post

Biden Got His Bipartisan Win. Now, Reality Sets In. – The New York Times

That was clearly the message Mr. Biden wanted to send. His White House staff developed the event with the kind of stagecraft usually reserved for political conventions or campaign events. Flags from each state flapped in the background as Mr. Biden, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and a union worker from North Carolina, strode to the lectern as Hail to the Chief played.

Now, the challenge for the president is to convince voters that passage of the legislation actually matters to their lives that it is not just a Washington abstraction, debated in the halls of Congress but with little impact on them.

Transportation. The proposal would see tens of billions of dollars in new federal spendinggoing to roads, bridges and transportation programs. Amtrak would see its biggest infusion of money since its inception, and funds would be allocated to programs intended to provide safe commutes for pedestrians.

Climate. Funding would be provided to better prepare the country to face global warming. The Forest Service would get billions of dollars to reduce the effects of wildfires. The bill includes $73 billion to modernize the nations electricity grid to allow it to carry renewable energy.

Resources for underserved communities. A new $2 billion grant program is expected to expand transportation projects in rural areas. The bill would also increase support for Native American communities, allotting $216 million to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for climate-resilience and adaptation efforts.

That effort begins in earnest immediately.

The ceremony on Monday will be followed by a burst of presidential travel aimed at showing the American people real examples of how the new law will pump money into the economy and provide good-paying jobs by upgrading roads, bridges, lead pipes, broadband and other infrastructure.

On Tuesday, Mr. Biden is expected to travel to New Hampshire, where he will speak at a bridge over the Pemigewasset River, which is in critical need of rehabilitation. The next day, he will visit a General Motors electric vehicle assembly plant in Detroit to showcase the billions of dollars to be spent on upgrading electric charging stations around the country.

Now is an opportunity for the president, the vice president, our cabinet, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said on Monday, to be out in the country, connecting the agenda, the impacts on peoples lives, moving beyond the legislative process to talk about how this is going to help them. And were hoping thats going to have an impact.

History suggests the president and his team have their work cut out for them.

Former President Barack Obama campaigned around the country during his first term in office, telling Americans that the Affordable Care Act would bend the cost curve for health insurance and improve coverage. But early glitches in the Obamacare website and opposition from the newly formed Tea Party made the law toxic in many places for many years.

After Mr. Trump passed tax cuts early in his tenure, he hosted a similar celebration (though without the bipartisan sheen) and then failed to sell it to the broader public. Throughout his tenure, the tax cuts remained a largely partisan victory.

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Biden Got His Bipartisan Win. Now, Reality Sets In. - The New York Times

How sexual assault survivors are harmed by the Texas abortion law : Shots – Health News – NPR

Protesters take part in the Women's March and Rally for Abortion Justice in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 2. The demonstration targeted Senate Bill 8, a state law that bans nearly all abortions as early as six weeks in a pregnancy, making no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest. SERGIO FLORES/Sergio Flores/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Protesters take part in the Women's March and Rally for Abortion Justice in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 2. The demonstration targeted Senate Bill 8, a state law that bans nearly all abortions as early as six weeks in a pregnancy, making no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest.

The SAFE Alliance in Austin helps survivors of child abuse, sexual assault and domestic violence. Back before Texas' new abortion law went into effect, the organization counseled a 12-year-old girl who had been repeatedly raped by her father.

Piper Stege Nelson, chief public strategies officer for the SAFE Alliance, says the father didn't let the young girl leave the house.

"She got pregnant," Nelson says. "She had no idea about anything about her body. She certainly didn't know that she was pregnant."

The girl was eventually able to get help, but if this had happened after Sept. 1, when the state law went into effect, her options would have been severely curtailed, Nelson says.

In Texas, abortions are now banned as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. The law, Senate Bill 8, is currently the most restrictive ban on the procedure in effect in the country. According to a recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist national poll, Texas' law is unpopular across the political spectrum.

Notably, the law also makes no exceptions for people who are victims of rape or incest. Social workers in Texas say that's causing serious harm to sexual assault survivors in the state.

"Devastating" for survivors of repeated rape and abuse

While many people don't realize they are pregnant until after 6 weeks, Nelson says this is a particular problem for those who are being repeatedly raped or abused.

That's because to cope with the trauma of the abuse, they often grow numb to what's happening to their bodies.

"That dissociation can lead to a detachment from reality and the fact that she's pregnant," Nelson says. "And so, there again, she is not going to know that she is pregnant by six weeks and she's not going to be able to resolve that pregnancy."

Monica Faulkner, a social worker in Austin who has worked with sexual assault survivors, says not having the option of terminating a pregnancy will make recovering from an assault even harder.

"The impact of finally coming forward and then being told there are no options for you is devastating," says Faulkner, who directs the Institute for Child and Family Wellbeing at the University of Texas at Austin.

Being forced to carry a pregnancy to term can be harmful financially, psychologically and, sometimes, physically. For survivors, that further strips away agency, Nelson says, after their sense of safety and control has already been violated.

"And so when you have something like SB 8," Nelson says, "what it is doing is, it's further taking control and power away from the survivor right at the moment when they need that power and control over their lives to begin healing."

Faulkner says it's important to give sexual assault survivors options on how to move forward in their lives. She says SB 8 "clearly is taking away any choice that they have."

Public opinion, even in Texas, favors exceptions to strict bans

For decades, public opinion even in Texas has been pretty consistent about allowing some exceptions to laws that restrict abortion. Most Americans believe there should be exceptions to strict abortion bans.

Carole Joffe, a professor and sociologist who studies abortion policy at the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco, says that despite public opinion on the matter, most of the anti-abortion bills introduced across the country in recent years haven't included exceptions for rape or incest.

"What we have seen over the years is a dramatic escalation," she says. "I think what Texas shines a bright spotlight on is what disdain we have for the needs of women and girls, or people who can get pregnant even if they don't identify as female."

The history of these types of exceptions is somewhat complicated. Joffe notes that toward the end of the 20th century, it was more common than now for states to include exceptions for rape and incest.

She says this trend to drop exceptions for rape and incest started about 10 years ago, after the Tea Party gained power in Congress and in many statehouses. As many legislatures became more politically conservative, anti-abortion groups started gaining more influence in the lawmaking process.

Anti-abortion movement has a tightening hold on state legislatures

Meanwhile, even as some state legislatures have been increasing the restrictions on abortion, the public views have really remained quite stable," Joffe says, with a sentiment that abortion should be allowed in cases of rape and incest. "The kind of restrictions we are seeing are the product of growing power in state legislatures of the anti-abortion movement," she says.

In 2019, a coalition of anti-abortion groups sent letters to national Republican Party officials following the passage of a controversial abortion law in Alabama. In it, groups asked GOP leaders to "reconsider decades-old talking points" regarding exceptions for rape and incest.

In Texas, the growing power of hardline conservatives in the state has helped anti-abortion successfully push for more restrictive laws.

John Seago, the legislative director with Texas Right To Life an influential anti-abortion group that pushed for SB 8, says the political shifts in the Texas legislature have made it easier to enact stricter abortion laws.

"In the last ten years, in Texas, our Republican majority has been growing," he says. "And kind of right around 2011/2013 we were really having enough votes to pass strong legislation."

And by "strong" Seago means not having to compromise on things like allowing abortions when severe fetal abnormalities are detected. Texas got rid of those exceptions a few years ago. And now that the new law in Texas doesn't exempt rape and incest, Seago says, it's more consistent with the underlying philosophy that groups like his hold.

"We are talking about innocent human life that it is not their crime, it was not their heinous behavior that victimized this woman," he says. "And so why should they receive the punishment?"

The problem of pregnancies arising from sexual assault is not a small one. One study estimates that almost 3 million women in the U.S. have become pregnant following a rape.

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How sexual assault survivors are harmed by the Texas abortion law : Shots - Health News - NPR