Blake Farmer and Nashville Public Radio seem to be positively giddy that-at least in their minds-a "decisive win" has eluded the Tea Party movement in Tennessee. What some who make this statement seem to forget is that some of the national Tea Party's prominent goals for the movement are already realities in Tennessee. What do we mean by that?

One of the Tea Party's most vocalized issues is over-taxation both at the State and federal level. While the Tennessee General Assembly can do very little but protest about oppressive taxation at the federal level, Tennessee has no income tax and is ranked 48th nationally in terms of tax burden. Our Legislature certainly has its fair share of problems with government waste-as chronicled amply in this space-but Tennessee has been blessed in that for the most part, the General Assembly has kept to its obligation to keep the budget balanced without resort to unconstitutional means of taxation.

Bill Haslam was not the first choice of many conservatives, but he does have a record as Mayor of Knoxville of lowering city tax rates and keeping them there. The city budget has been dealt with dealt with largely in a responsible way during Haslam's tenure, and his mayoral record is the record that Tennessee voters have to go on when determining the kind of Governor that he will be. Mayor Haslam has pledged that he will not resort to an income tax as Governor, and indeed that he will veto any legislated income tax-and the shadow of former Governor Don Sundquist hangs like a pall over any future Republican administration in this State, so that even if Bill Haslam privately prefers an income tax, he will be bound to publicly oppose it. On social issues such as aborticide Haslam is bound by a Legislature that is increasingly pro-life, and on the question of the integrity of traditional marriage, a Governor Haslam would be bound by the Tennessee Constitution itself.

The resonance of the Tea Party in Tennessee is such that it's impact is most being felt on the local and hyper-local level all over the State. The reason that Tea Partiers can't point to some great establishment-sweeping victory here is precisely because Tennessee has already shown over the last two years (beginning before the Tea Party was even a glimmer in the eye) that our politics and political spectrum are naturally skewed to the right. Many of the Tea Party's important issues are things that Tennessee legislators-especially Republicans-have been trying to promote for years on end and now they have a chance to act on many of those ideas if the outcome of voting on November 2nd goes their way.

The reason the Tea Party has caused no major political earthquake in Tennessee isn't because people are ignoring the movement. On the contrary, the Tea Party's ideas are already mainstream here in Tennessee.