This thesis aims to examine the Tea Party movement from the context of Richard Hofstadter's writings on the paranoid style in American politics. The findings in this study suggest that the Tea Party is something of a paranoid movement, and it suggests that factors for individual paranoid political behavior within this movement are a result of Evangelical fundamentalism, the uses of social media and algorithmic targeting, anxiety towards outgroups, and the machinations of the modern media. An exploration of the origins of the Tea Party and its impacts on the American political system is conducted in order to define and observe the movement as a modern political phenomenon. This grassroots movement is to a large degree responsible for the Republican Party's continued move towards the far right, and it has caused infighting amongst Congressional Tea Partiers and moderate Republicans for influence within the party. These findings reinforce observations of Republican retrenchment and further leanings to the far right of the American political spectrum. This theory is of value since it offers an understanding of the political phenomena occurring within the Republican Party in the form of the Tea Party and allows the field of Political Science to examine and apply the effects of new forms of communication. Social media and the algorithms applied to individual online activity has grave impacts with regards to predicting political behavior and factors that contribute to the formation of an individual's political beliefs. Concluding theoretical assumptions depict the new forms of mass media as one key factor responsible for altering the way individuals consume and process information thus resulting in the continued rise of far right conservative ideology within the Tea Party. / Master of Arts

The end of the year 2007, during the presidential campaign of Republican congressman Ron Paul, was the first time when the modern Tea Party movement appeared on American political scene. In a short period of time the Tea Party became a significant political force that endorsed many successful candidates in 2010 midterm elections and put pressure on established political parties to follow the will of the people. This thesis, written primarily as a political affairs analysis, examines origins of this grassroots movement and its impact on American politics. Put in a broader historical and socio-economic context, this work tries to create a notion of movement's probable future. The thesis is divided into three major parts. First chapter provides an insight into the historical origins of the modern Tea Party movement and also the birth of populism in the United States. The following part looks into the formation of Tea Party and describes the most important organizations connected with the movement and how they influenced its activities. The third part is focused on the most relevant Tea Party protests and in form of a case study assesses its influence on 2010 midterm elections.

Thesis advisor: Shep Melnick / While the Tea Party’s rise in 2009 prompted enormous media attention and subsequent academic inquiry, scholarship that investigates Tea Party ideology is scant. While not a social movement in the traditional sense, the Tea Party had an undeniable influence on the 2010 midterms, especially at the state level. This paper features New Hampshire, a perennial swing state and home to one of the largest legislative shifts to Republican control in recent memory. By exploring four broad issue areas, Constitutionalism, the economy, social issues, and race, the project seeks a clearer understanding of what Tea Partiers believe and what their sympathetic state legislators espouse. The first level of analysis uses opinion polling to demonstrate that while those respondents who back the Tea Party have conservative views on perceptual questions, a plurality agree with most Americans on specific policy positions. The second level of analysis compares opinion poll responses to interviews of New Hampshire state legislators, finding that the latter group is much more rigidly conservative on tangible policies, but lacks Tea Party voters’ distinctive fears of a changing America. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science Honors Program. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Political Science.

In 2011, National Football League (NFL) quarterback Tim Tebow gripped America when the Denver Broncos reeled off a series of thrilling wins in an unlikely playoff run. Surrounding this stretch of Bronco wins was a media frenzy popularly known as “Tebow Mania”. The media explosion around Tebow can be attributed to his perplexing character and the political, cultural and social circumstances in 2011. This thesis is a critical media discourse analysis of Tebow’s sport star identity. I analyze the ways in which Tebow was described during the heights of his popularity during the 2011 NFL season. I argue that Tebow’s sport star identity naturalized ideologies of rightwing conservatism, (rightwing) conservative Christian fundamentalism and white masculinity into “common sense” notions of social life. To accomplish this, I follow cultural studies methodologies that trace Tebow’s rise to prominence within the context of The Tea Party Movement. I outline two dominant narratives that emerged during Tebow Mania to fabricate an American Dream, underdog story. While the first narrative of polarization criticizes and contemplates Tebow’s muscular Christianity, the counter-narrative repackages the polarization of Tebow by celebrating his white racial identity and conservative American values. / Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2013-12-27 13:26:52.995

abstract: Using models identified by communications scholars Herbert W. Simons and Charles J. Stewart, a rhetorical analysis was conducted on contemporary Tea Party Movement (TPM) artifacts in an attempt to gauge the movement's authenticity as it relates to grassroots advocacy versus astroturfing. The models provided a theoretical framework in which the functions of social movement leaders were analyzed, as well as the rhetorical phases of a movement. Additionally, the notions of advocacy and astroturfing were defined and the concepts compared and contrasted. Used in conjunction with one another the models provided a framework in which TPM artifacts could be analyzed. Analysis was conducted on the websites for the Tea Party Patriots and Tea Party Express, a one-month sample of Sarah Palin FaceBook posts, two speeches delivered by Michelle Bachmann, and finally one speech given by Palin. Examples for each of the necessary rhetorical components identified were found within TPM sources, thus leading to the conclusion that the TPM operates primarily as a grassroots advocacy movement. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Communication Studies 2011

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The Tea Party movement became a significant political force in American politics in 2009. Soon after their arrival on the national scale, this movement turned its attention to environmental policymaking. In particular, it spurred a strong opposition to local sustainable development initiatives. While this conflict has run its course in most places, it remains an example of the type of opposition future environmental or sustainability work may face. This three-part study is focused on determining the extent and nature of this opposition with particular emphasis on how it reflected the broader conflict between individualism and collectivism. First, we analyzed general interest in the topics associated with the opposition using media interest and internet search trends. Next, we evaluated what was driving this opposition through rhetoric analysis of local Tea Party organizations from across the country. This helped uncover several of the predominant themes in the opposition, including a belief in American Exceptionalism, concern over our system of Governance and a strong preference for individualism. Lastly, we conducted a case study of the conflict in Roanoke, VA. This allowed us to map out the specifics of one segment of the broader conflict and explore the driving themes further. The results of all three parts point to a substantial, but diffuse, opposition that was driven in no small part by a preference for individualism. This work demonstrates that individualism can be used as a lens through which a fuller understanding of this, and future, opposition of environmental legislation may be generated. / Master of Science

The aim of the present thesis is to determine whether the Tea Party candidatesʼ attitudes towards selected controversial issues influenced their electoral success and the success of the Tea Party movement as a whole. The thesis consists of two parts, theoretical and empirical. In the theoretical part the author focuses on the historical perspective of the political and party system in the United States of America, bipartism and position of third parties in the system. It also includes a brief analysis of the Democratic and Republican parties. Next, the author examines the Tea Party phenomenon - its genesis, structure, purposes and ideals. The subsequent section deals with three controversial issues, i.e. abortion, LGBT rights, and race, which reflect an ideological cleavage among the american public. The empirical part presents a case study entitled The influence of controversial issues on the (non)success of the Tea Party candidates, which deals with attitudes of the House and Senate Tea Party candidates who won the 2010 congressional elections towards the above- mentioned controversial issues.

Début 2009, alors que les Etats-Unis étaient au coeur de la crise économique la plusimportante depuis plus de soixante-quinze ans, Barack Obama prenait place à la Maison-Blanche etmettait en place ses premières mesures sous le mot d’ordre « Hope and Change ». L’opposition à sonaction s’est alors rapidement cristallisée autour du mouvement Tea Party. Le premier objectif de cetravail de thèse consiste à expliquer le succès remporté par ce mouvement, en soulignant le rôle dequatre facteurs issue de la « structure des opportunités politiques » : l’ouverture du système partisanaux challengers, la stabilité des alignements politiques, l’existence de forces relais et, enfin, lastructure du conflit. Ces éléments constitutifs nous donnent aussi les clés nécessaires pour comprendrecomment et sous quelle forme s’est construite l’idéologie du mouvement. Dans un second temps, ilsera question d’analyser les effets du mouvement Tea Party sur son environnement politique. Nouschercherons à comprendre dans quelle mesure et selon quels mécanismes ce mouvement est parvenu àinfluencer le système politique américain dans un contexte marqué, depuis les années soixante-dix, parune polarisation de la politique américaine. Pour cela, nous aurons recours à l’étude comparée desdiscours produits par le Tea Party, le Parti républicain et le Parti démocrate. / In 2009, while the United-States were suffering from the worst economic crisis in more thansixty-five years, Barack Obama entered the White House and began implementing the first measuresof his “Hope and change” agenda. Opposition to his actions quickly crystallized around the Tea Partymovement. This PhD thesis aims firstly to explain the sudden success of the Tea Party by pointing therole of four factors linked to the “political opportunity structure”: access to the party system and policydecisions, the political alignments stability, the alliance structure, and finally the conflict structure.Those four elements can also help us understand the way the movement’s ideology was shaped. Asecond part is devoted to analyzing the effects of the Tea Party on its political environment. We intendto show to what extend and in which ways the Tea Party was able to influence the American politicalsystem, in a context marked, since the seventies, by a growing political polarization. To do so, weproceed by resorting to the comparative study of the Tea Party, the Republican Party, and theDemocratic Party discourses.

La notion de « marque politique » s’inscrit dans une dédifférenciation généralisée du champ de la consommation. L’enjeu de cette thèse est d’appréhender les propriétés socio-sémiotiques et communicationnelles de cette marque, nouveau vecteur d’engagement citoyen. La recherche s’intéressera dans un premier temps à la marque Ségolène Royal. Or, le glissement vers le domaine des marques se traduirait également par l’avènement d’un « consumérisme politique » selon lequel la souveraineté du consommateur s’impose comme modèle de souveraineté politique. Un consumérisme politique consistant également en une dynamique de jugement des marques politiques en continu, favorisée par l’émergence des réseaux socionumériques. En résulte l’avènement de communautés de marques politiques, intervenant dans le processus de co-construction de l’offre politique. Les exemples du Tea Party, Parti Pirate et MoVimento Cinque Stelle illustreront ces nouvelles formes de mobilisations issues de l’agrégation de consomm-acteurs politiquement engagés. / The concept of « political brand » is part of a widespread dedifferentiation of the consumption field. The aim of this thesis is to understand the socio-semiotic and communicational properties of theses brands that potentially foster citizen engagement. The research will at first focus on the “Segolène Royal Brand”. Nevertheless, the shift to the branding field also results in the emergence of a “political consumerism” which takes consumer sovereignty as model of political sovereignty. Boosted by online networks, Political consumerism is also promoting to the permanent judgement of political brands. It may also result in the surfacing of brand communities co-constructing their autonomous political offer. Examples such as the Tea Party, the Pirate party or the MoVimento Cinque Stelle illustrate these news forms of mobilisation, based on aggregation of political engaged prosumers.