Having sold itself in 2010 as the uncompromising champion of Tea Party-fueled fiscal austerity, the enhanced G.O.P. caucus arrived in Washington in 2011 to discover that most Americans prefer compromise to confrontation and favor balanced budgets in name only.
The Republicans, who sold themselves as the uncompromising champions of Tea Party-fueled fiscal austerity, have discovered that most Americans prefer compromise to confrontation.
In the process, Trump has recast their earlier champions — namely tea party darling Sen. Ted Cruz — as disappointing outsiders-turned-insiders who cater to corporate donors and fail to deliver on big promises.
AMES, Iowa -- Sarah Palin, the conservative icon and champion of the tea party movement, endorsed Republican front-runner Donald Trump Tuesday at a campaign rally here.
Cantor, by contrast, has drawn a hard line against taxes, casting himself as a champion of the tea party-influenced freshmen who gave Republicans control of the House last fall.
And he's also become a champion of the tea party movement.
There were of course champions for English tea.
Both see themselves as champions of the "tea party movement" – the groundswell of discontent from angst-ridden and disaffected voters, some Republican, some independents – who believe President Barack Obama is driving America towards an alien world of socialism.
The public has just been hypnotized into believing that the richest and most creative nation on Earth has only two choices in this crisis: massive austerity (as championed by the Tea Party/Republicans) or SEMI-massive austerity (as meekly offered by too many DC Democrats).
But although warmly introduced as a Tea Party champion, the freshman senator was forced on the defensive by the Fox News anchor Sean Hannity, who asked him during a challenging question and answer session if he regretted proposing similar reforms as part of a comprehensive immigration bill that passed the Senate in 2013 but stalled in the House.
Sandwiched in New Hampshire between runaway winner Donald Trump and third-place Tea Party champion Ted Cruz, it is hardly a surprise that Kasich now seeks to capitalize on the mainstream appeal that charmed voters at more than 100 town hall meetings across the state.
