Tea Partiers are sipping on Kool-Aid

Congratulations to the 112th United States Congress and the new governor of the great state of Florida.

By the time this is printed, we should know who most of you are. For those of you who kept us up all night, thanks a lot. Wait, who am I kidding? The percentage of students at UF who stayed up late on election night is surely less than 5 percent, right? And only a bit more will actually vote in the midterms despite the virtuous efforts of local political organizations, campaigns and independent groups like Rock the Vote. More students are interested in the end of attack ads between Steve Oelrich and Perry McGriff or between Alex Sink and Rick Scott than to actually help decide which one of them will be governing all of us.

Maybe I’m weird, but I was incredibly excited to vote in this election as it was my first since turning 18. Furthermore, I consider myself a center-left kind of guy, so based on the political climate this year, “excited” isn’t a word that comes to most of my like-minded colleagues’ minds when thinking about a midterm election that was scheduled to dissipate the Democratic party’s supermajority.

But just wait, Republicans, here’s some advice you could have used. Republicans, you shot yourselves in the foot with candidates like Christine O’Donnell, whose largest claim to fame was witchcraft, and Sharron Angle, who makes last year’s incarnation of Joaquin Phoenix look like a media darling.

It’s my personal belief this is not a mandate against the Obama Administration. The chief issue behind this past election is, yet again, the economy. After the stimulus package in 2009 and the official end of the recession back in June, consumers just still aren’t confident.

The Republicans need to be careful, however. The Tea Party might surge to power based on two major issues: cutting government spending and lowering taxes, but most Tea Partiers are more socially conservative than the average bear as well. I find it hard to believe the Tea Party is a sustainable national movement. It works well on a local, grassroots level, where candidates can go head-to-head against that “Washington politician” or that “Tallahassee politician” who foolishly spent taxpayer money. But when Tea Partiers go national, you end up with O’Donnell, Angle, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. Not only are all four of these candidates gaffe-prone, but their election into national office, God forbid the office of the president of the U.S., could result in turmoil both here and abroad.

Why’s that? The Tea Party stems out of legitimate concern and a legitimate political perspective, one I don’t subscribe to, but not an unreasonable political view. However, it’s the supporters who often throw their own movement under the bus. Either by displaying signs with racial slurs, Photoshopping the president of the U.S. with a Hitler mustache or screaming socialism in an attempt to be the anti-vanguard, the movement loses credibility daily.

So a few congratulations are in order. Pop that champagne, Republicans.  Don’t adjust your television, Speaker John Boehner is really that orange (Watch out Snooki!) and get ready for the sprint to the center. Democrats, know that Obama has to compromise if he wants to be re-elected, but Republicans should know that Tea Partiers aren’t a shoo-in either.

Sean Quinn is a first-year political science student. His column appears every Wednesday.