A major difference between the Liberal Party and the Teabaggers is history; Teabaggery is really just a reactionary off-shoot of (and a distortion of the worst excesses of) the Republican base. The Liberals have been part of the British electoral landscape for a very long time.
Yes and no. Liberals continue to exist largely as a protest party. It was a surprise to everyone, not least themselves, that they are now in government. Their support is greatest when the other two major parties are hated equally.Their problem next time around will be that they have taken sides, so not much use as a protest vote. Their popular support in polls is down to half or 1/3 what it was before the election.
They only came into being following Obama's inaugural: they are an "astroturfed" creation of big money and some tired old saws voted out of office in the Democratic waves of 2006 and 2008. There is nothing "organic" or "grassroots" about them at all. They are either deeply, cynically disingenuous or else so poorly informed that they actually believe all that Socialist/Marxist/Birther bullshit.
Well Im not american and have limited information. What I have seen suggest that whoever their candidates are, their support stems from an utter distaste by americans for their government. They are voting to destroy said government which has failed them. I doubt the governments record will be any better in 2 years time.
Any hopes of the GOP shaking off its "rump-base" of assorted crazy is a deep exercise in wishful thinking. Only time will tell if the Teabaggers are sent back into the "crazy-aunt" attic (where they've been pandered to and kept for years) after an electoral meltdown in 2012 or whether there will be a wholesale march of moderate Republicans to the Democratic side.
In the UK the conservative party has its own right wing crazies. So does the labour left, of course, and both parties are in constant internal warfare to present a centrist policy to electors. The benefit of the liberals to Cameron is that he can face off the generally centre/left liberals against his own right wingers. The badge 'liberal' covers quite a range of misfits who tend not to be easy to label conventionally, but many would be entirely happy as left wing conservatives, or right wing labour. So Cameron gets to reinforce the centrist side of his party, which is where he is most comfortable.
I would thing the tea and republican parties are currently tussling with each other to see which manages to use the other. The liberals might be utterly destroyed next time round, or they might manage to establish themselves as the natural left in government (quite a big 'might' at the moment). Since the tea party is an expression of public distaste with goverrnment it isnt obvious to me that it will be gone by the next elections. The nature of US government seems to give infinite opportunity to blame everything on the other side blocking your actions. This must be at least part of what voters hate. But come next time the economy will be worse, nothing major will have changed, there may have been major stand offs over the budget, the state will be just as big. The tea baggers will still be screaming against democrats, and presumably also against the republican establishment. I think they will do better next time. It may depend on how well they can concentrate on core anti-government values.
Since they wont have power now, you may have to wait until after their decisive win in 2012 before they get a chance to act, and the nation can decide if they really like what they get.
I still say, the US main problem is the 25% of the budget spent on defence. Is anyone in favour of cutting this?
