TEXAN LOOKING TO SHORE UP “CONSERVATIVE” SUPPORT IN PALMETTO STATE.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz will attend the 2015 South Carolina Tea Party convention next month, sources close to the event tell FITS.
The Texan – who along with U.S. Sen. Rand Paul is seeking to emerge as a leading alternative to the GOP “establishment” – is the third presumptive “Republican” presidential prospect to commit to the event, which is being held in mid-January in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Also attending? Social conservative Rick Santorum – who ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination in 2012 – and neurosurgeon/ author Ben Carson, who is mulling a presidential bid of his own.
We’ll be honest: This website has little use for the “Tea Party” label – just as we have little use for the term “conservative” and absolutely zero use for the “Republican” identifier. These self-applied designations have been debased over the years – stripped of all meaning by dozens of self-serving politicians who used them exclusively for personal promotion, not public (i.e. taxpayer) protection.
Seriously … we hear the terms “Tea Party,” “conservative” and “Republican” and we just roll our eyes. Then we point people to Nikki Haley, South Carolina’s “Tea Party” governor (link HERE). Or to the “conservative” GOP leadership in Washington, D.C. (link HERE).
Show us your votes, candidates … not your labels.
Anyway, while the politicians who pander to this crowd may be (and usually are) completely full of it … Tea Partiers vote. And in many instances, the issues that matter to them are worth discussing – and acting on. For example, we support the Tea Party in its bid to get rid of the notoriously corrupt Internal Revenue Service … an issue which will be front and center at this year’s gathering.
(And yes … Ted Cruz is all over this).
Our hope? That the Tea Party can channel the crazier angels of its nature and develop a more credible identity and coherent message – one that eschews opportunistic politicians and embraces specific policy proposals (like dumping the IRS and the existing tax code in favor of a fairer, flatter consumption-based tax).
The 2015 Tea Party convention in South Carolina will take place from January 17-19 at the Springmaid Beach Resort in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
