Whatever happened to the Tea Party?

Whatever happened to the Tea Party? 

Whatever was left of the Tea Party movement died overnight.

Dr. Rand Paul, a Kentucky senator, tried to give it CPR, personally shutting down the federal government for a few hours by taking the floor and delaying a vote on the budget deal.

The proposed bipartisan resolution to keep the government open gave Republicans more money for defense and Democrats more money for a host of other programs. What’s worse for Paul was that all of it was done at the last minute, behind closed doors, and most members of Congress had no way to read and understand all 600-plus pages.

Paul’s filibuster Thursday night ended up just being the eulogy for the Tea Party. The Republican-controlled House and Senate passed the huge spending package, despite the fact that it will bloat the national debt. President Trump, who ran a campaign promising to radically reduce the debt, signed the bill around the time federal workers showed up to clock in for another Friday.

The Tea Party movement began in 2009 and rose to its height during the 2010 midterm elections that swept Republicans into power on Capitol Hill. (Scott Brown’s upset victory in January 2010 in the US Senate special election in Massachusetts was a harbinger of Tea Party successes that fall.)

The decentralized movement had different manifestations. For some followers, it was mainly about repealing Obamacare. Some Southern chapters were more about social conservatism. Observers of the movement detected some racist overtones.