Upon becoming leader again Nigel Farage about his party:
“Speaking on Sky News, he said that his party shared the feeling of being "overtaxed, over-governed, not being listened to".”
He could not have been unaware that those words echo the feelings of the tea party movement in the US. And it was clever for him to make the positive comparison between the two. After all the UK mainstream media uses similar terms to describe both groups, might as well grab some of the positive too. Terms like racist, xenophobe and nutcase are used for both groups frequently by lazy journalists who neither care nor want to actually admit what the groupings are really about.
Other observers are making similar positive comparisons between the two. One such blog said this. after the Eastleigh result last week..
“just like the US Tea party UKIP are showing just how many of the people are angry with the mainstream parties and that means they may be a new power in UK politics. “
And, of course, the reaction of the mainstream right to rise of these popular movements have been similar on both sides of the pond.
“Now the reason that this is interesting and significant is that for years David Cameron's new, principle-free, policy-lite Conservatives-In-Name-Only have tried to mock and marginalize UKIP in much the way the mainstream GOP has tried to distance itself from the Tea Party.”
Whether it is Karl Rove or David Cameron, the sneering of the “leaders” of the right is the same.
And, activists and leading lights are doing their best to widen the deep divide between principled Republicans and Conservatives with their valid leadership as Farage is attempting this week..
“There are many who take the (to my mind, horribly wrong-headed and short-sighted) view that the party’s best hopes reside in joining forces with Ukip. The result in Eastleigh has only heightened this sentiment.”
The likes of the BBC and the Guardian will not change their rhetoric about either UKIP or the tea party movement. But would it be a good idea for UKIP to fully embrace the “UK tea party” tag?
Cross-posted @ The Commentator
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