Advice for Tea Party Activists

Mark Tapscott at the Washington Examiner discusses the upcoming Tea Party meeting in Nashville and the dangers of considering creating a third party to challenge the GOP and Dems. Rather than go down a dead-end third party road, they should seek out candidates who agree with their vision of limited government and get those candidates nominated by the major parties:

Going the traditional third-party route will lead Tea Partiers to a dead end. Taking over the GOP probably should be pursued in any case, but even if successful would only win half the battle and likely would be temporary in any case.

Why settle for half a victory when Tea Partiers have within their grasp as an independent third force to be the decisive influence in both major political parties?

There is no mystery about what most Tea Partiers seek -- a limited, transparent government that listens to them and resists ideologues with millennial blueprints to remake America in their own image, minimal taxation and regulation, strong national defense, and an unapologetic commitment to American exceptionalism abroad.

Tea Partiers should seek out or field candidates in both major parties who support those aims and do everything possible to elect them, then hold their feet to the fire of accountability. Just imagine a bipartisan Tea Party Caucus with sufficient numbers in Congress to drive the national agenda.

That could be a conquering army like none before in American politics.

Exactly. Those pushing for a conservative third party are just asking for defeat for their allies and victory for the Democrats. They'll only serve to split the conservative vote between the GOP and the third party while the liberal vote sticks together and elects Democrats.

Better to work within the two party system rather than fight it with an ineffective third party.