The Tea Party Movement And Its Influence On Contemporary American Party Politics

Populist movement,as a part of mass movement,has appeared repeatedly in American history,beginning with the Greenback and Granger movements in the 1860 s and1870s and continuing with William Jennings Bryan’ s Populist Party in the 1890 s and Louisiana politician Huey Long’ s Share Our Wealth program during the Great Depression of the 1930 s.In the wake of the Financial Crisis in 2008,populist sentiment was again on the rise,which gave rise to the Tea Party movement.Since then the Tea Party has never left America and its influence on politics,especially the party politics,extends to today.The Tea Party’s success,to a large extent,has reshaped American political landscape,and further influenced the Republican party.Thus when talking about contemporary American party politics,one can not ignore the fact that it is deeply influenced by the Tea Party movement.This thesis intends to analyze the Tea Party movement from a relatively comprehensive perspective and what influence it has on contemporary American party politics,especially on the Trump administration.This thesis would try to answer the following three questions: Is the Tea Party movement a bottom-up movement or a top-bottom movement? What are unique characteristics of the Tea Party movement compared with the Occupy Wall Street movement and what are the impact of the Tea Party movement and the right-wing populism represented by it on contemporary American party politics? Through finding answers to these three questions,the author will draw the conclusion that the Tea Party movement will continue to influence American party politics in light of the current American national conditions.In this thesis,the author will combine the qualitative and quantitative methods,including methodology for historical research and the inductive approach to research,methodology for comparative analysis and methodology for statistical analysis.Historical research and the inductive approach will be adopted to give a relatively full analysis of the Tea Party movement based on existing books and documents on this topic and of its influence on contemporary American party politics.There are mainly four waves of populist movements in American history,but the author plans to compare the Tea Party movement with the Occupy movement which emerged at the same time to figure out some unique characteristics of the Tea Party movement.Besides,the existing data from the Pew,Gallup and other research centers in congressional and presidential elections will becollected to analyze what kind of voters are in favor of Trump,and what are their top concerns in their decision to support him.In a word,considering the widening gap between the rich and the poor,the high unemployment rate and the inflow of illegal immigration as well as other problems,people’s political,economic and cultural anxieties have not been dealt with.Therefore,I come to the conclusion that the right-wing populism,represented by the Tea Party movement,would continue to influence American party politics.