Changing Image? The influence of the Tea Party on the rebranding of the Republican Party

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: USA, grade: 1,7, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, language: English, abstract: As soon as it became clear that the Tea Party Movement is not just a spontaneous and soon-to-end quick uprising of unsatisfied people, scientists all around the world started to take a closer look at the phenomenon. The media attention got higher and the amount of articles written about the tea party movement rose quickly. There are many different essays, articles and books about the tea party movement, its uprising and its core beliefs and aims. Important for my essay were the books and articles of Theda Skcocpol and Vanessa Williamson, who give a broad impression about the tea party and explain very short and easy how the movement evolved and what the movement is all about. Also very well written is the book of Charles Bullock, which I also used for my essay. Scott Rasmussen explained the whole movement very precisely and in detail in his book Mad as hell and was therefore also an important source for my essay. Most of the existing essays, articles and books concentrate on the tea party movement itself and how it might affect the government and the government of Barack Obama in particular. It is often asked how the protests might affect the elections and the voter outcome and what this movement means for Medicare and other important political issues and how the Democrats should deal with this uprising. In the last few months many articles also examined the Koch brothers and their involvement in the funding of the tea party. The aim of my work is to look closer on another aspect of the tea party movement. This essay is going to look on the connection between the tea party movement and the Republican Party and in what terms one affects the other.