The Tea Party may have tapped into the deep anger of Americans who are unsatisfied with two years of high joblessness, foreclosed homes, President Obama’s health-care reform, high gas prices, three foreign wars, a long recession, lush congressional perks and zero government accountability.
[Note: This article was originally posted on December 14th, 2011. The IFNM website was attacked by hackers and many articles are now gone from the archives. As a public service, IFNM is now reposting said articles.]
A cadre of conservative Republicans in St. Johns County believes that their conservative brothers and sisters in the St. Augustine Tea Party are attempting to split the party into two competing ideological wings.
Yet both sides believe that the other is already in control.
Tea Party leaders deny they want to split the party and say Republicans haven’t been listening to their constituents, who want lower taxes and less government.
Randy Covington, Republican state committeeman and Tea Party member who is secretary of the Republican Executive Committee, said the establishment is angry that change is coming.
“It doesn’t matter what that change is,” Covington said. “If they’re upset, they only have themselves to blame.”
Several mainstream Republicans said they don’t believe Tea Party rhetoric and added, “There’s been a war going on” for control of the party since 2008, when the libertarian-leaning Republican Liberty Caucus tried to take over.
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