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At this event, three close observers of the American political scene examined the rapid rise of the tea party movement and what it means for civic life. What drives the tea party movement? Will its momentum last through the 2010 elections and beyond? How does it compare to the Obama
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campaign’s political-activist netroots? Is there a revolution afoot among average Americans mobilized by the power of the Internet? What does an active and engaged citizenry look like in the digital age?
Answering these and other questions were Kristen Soltis, director of policy research at the Winston Group; David Weigel, blogger and reporter with the Washington Post; and New York Times columnist Ross Douthat. AEI visiting fellow Jonah Goldberg moderated.
This was the first in a series of events organized by AEI's American Citizenship Program. The program is dedicated to strengthening the foundations of American freedom and self-government by renewing our understanding of American citizenship.
| 1:45 p.m. | Registration |
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| 2:00 | Panelists: | Ross Douthat, New York Times |
| Kristen Soltis, Winston Group | ||
| David Weigel, Washington Post | ||
| Moderator: | Jonah Goldberg, AEI | |
| 4:00 | Adjournment |
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WASHINGTON, JUNE 9, 2010--Four leading commentators on American politics gathered at AEI on Wednesday to discuss the rise and impact of the tea party movement. Pollster Kristen Soltis of the Winston Group, a strategy and message-design firm, presented her research on the demographics and motivations of tea party supporters. Tea partiers, she said, are largely older, first-time activists who got involved through social-networking tools and who are driven by anxiety about the economy. David Weigel, reporter for the Washington Post, and New York Times columnist Ross Douthat both found parallels to the antiwar movement and warned that the tea party could face an "agenda problem" if it didn't develop a clear message. The panelists agreed that the tea party movement had shifted national political debate rightward and that it would continue to have an impact. AEI visiting fellow Jonah Goldberg moderated the event.
- "What do [Tea Partiers] want? They want largely the same things the rest of America wants. They want the economy fixed. . . . [The health care debate was] the equivalent of taking a house that's on fire and saying, well, you know that screen needs to be fixed and you can probably redo some of the wiring and maybe the foundation's not so good. But until you put that fire out, nobody cares about the rest of it. You really have to address the fire, which in this case is the unemployment rate."
--Kristen Soltis, Winston Group, Director of Policy Research - "The tea party movement is driven by deficits, it is driven by taxes, it is driven by the stimulus and by the state of the economy. But there isn't one set of issues that has the same kind of resonance as the Iraq war had for the antiwar movement."
--David Weigel, Washington Post - "The tea party could last as long as Obama is in power. . . . Barack Obama is so identified with the trends that created the tea party spirit in the first place."
--Ross Douthat, New York Times - "As a matter of full disclosure, on April 15, I was the keynote speaker at a tea party rally in Cincinnati and I did not get the distinct scent of sulfur in the air when I was there. But whether or not [the Tea Partiers] are spawned from the depths or reincarnations of Tom Paine, they are certainly having a huge impact on American politics today and on the Republican Party."
--Jonah Goldberg, AEI, Visiting Fellow
Speaker biographies
Ross Douthat is an op-ed columnist and blogger for the New York Times. Previously, he was a senior editor at The Atlantic and a blogger for TheAtlantic.com. He is the author of Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class (Hyperion, 2005) and the coauthor, with Reihan Salam, of Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream (Doubleday, 2008). He is also the film critic for National Review.
Jonah Goldberg is a visiting fellow at AEI and editor at large of National Review Online. His first book, Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning (Doubleday, 2008), was a number one New York Times and Amazon bestseller and Amazon readers selected it as the number one history book of 2008. He is a member of the Board of Contributors for USA Today, and he previously served as a columnist for the Times of London, Brill's Content, and The American Enterprise. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Commentary, The New Yorker, and numerous other publications.
Kristen Soltis is the director of policy research at the Winston Group, where she has worked since 2005. She is a contributor to the Huffington Post, the Daily Caller, Pollster.com and Politico's The Arena, and she has also written for National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, The American Spectator, Politico, the Next Right, and the Orlando Sentinel. Her research focuses primarily on election trends, young voters, political parties, and education policy. She has also been published in the academic journal American Politics Research for her research on campaign finance reform.
David Weigel writes the Right Now blog for the Washington Post. For three years, Mr. Weigel's reporting has focused on the American conservative movement. He covered the Ron Paul and Bob Barr presidential campaigns for Reason magazine, and has covered the remaking of the right for the Washington Independent. His work has appeared in USA Today, Campaigns & Elections (now Politics), Slate, Time.com, The American Prospect, The American Conservative, The American Spectator, Politico, and The Nation.
