Listen to the clip below talking about Republicans and the Tea Party movement. Don't think for a second that the Democrats can't try and make a play for some of these dissatisfied Tea Party activists. They won't get the die-hard conservative voter, but what about the Independent who is fed up with both parties?
Watch the Democratic Party try to use the Citizens United campaign financing Supreme Court ruling to their advantage in an attempt to find common ground with the Tea Party crowd. After all, while Tea Party activists value free speech, you can also make the argument that the Citizens United case will lead to more power for special interest groups and corporations which Tea Partiers don’t like either.
The DCCC believes the corporate greed and Wall Street corruption angles are areas where Tea Partiers may be willing to listen to their message
Rep. Van Hollen: We welcome all these voters. As we’ve discussed, Democrats were successful at winning the Independent vote in 2006 and 2008. And we believe that when those voters focus on the issues and the agenda being proposed by the two parties, they will continue to see that the Democratic Party position on issues is more closely aligned to the interests of Middle America than the Republicans.
Republicans have been able to try and tap into this Tea Party movement but the Tea Party movement, the authentic components of that Tea Party movement, are understandably very wary of this notion that the Republican Party in Washington is going to try and take it over and drive that movement.
And for good reason, because a lot of the interests of the Washington-based Republican Party are not consistent with the interests of the folks in Middle America. And I think you’re going to continue to see that develop in the next nine months.