Tea power

Tea party members in the Shenandoah Valley and in chapters across America defy bureaucracy, choosing instead to rally for their causes of liberty and less government, specifically lower taxes, no government health care and an end to deficit spending.

What started with tax day rallies last April now include tea party chapters across the land, and last weekend the first ever national tea party convention in Nashville, Tenn., keynoted by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

The Shenandoah Valley Tea Party Patriots now include an e-mail list of 800, and its director Bruce Richmond, said the movement is growing toward Harrisonburg, where a meeting was held Thursday night.

He said Virginia’s largest tea party chapter is in Richmond, which numbers several thousand members.

The Shenandoah Valley Tea Party Patriots are independent, but are members of the Virginia Tea Party Federation.

Political experts say the movement advocates government cuts but is not specific.

The experts say the tea party members should align their energy with a major political party or face the same demise that third-party movements have in the United States during the past century and a half.

“The key is working within the Republican Party and getting the party more in their direction,’’ said Charles Dunn, dean of the school of government at Regent University.

A third party is not a viable option, he said.

“When did a third party become major? Before the Civil War when the Whigs split up and became Republicans,’’ he said.

The last time a third-party effort resonated with voters was in 1992, when independent Ross Perot campaigned on a balanced budget, pro-choice and protectionist agenda.

Perot garnered 19 percent of the vote in the presidential election and took enough votes away from incumbent President George H.W. Bush to assure Bill Clinton’s election as president.

Perot later worked to start the Reform Party and garnered 8 percent of the vote in the 1996 presidential race.

Ultimately, Dunn said the wisdom of American voters is greater than they are given credit for. And Dunn said that wisdom extends to tea party voters, who will ultimately opt for major party candidates.

“A lot of tea party voters will say ‘I don’t want to throw my vote away,’ ’’ Dunn said.

But there’s also more work for tea partiers to do, starting with providing specifics on what should be cut from the federal budget, said James Madison University political science professor Bob Roberts.

“They are not clear on how to make government smaller beyond health care and cap-and-trade,’’ Roberts said, referring to the public option for health insurance and legislation aimed at reducing carbon emissions. “What programs would they cut? Would they cut social security or defense spending?”

Roberts said programs tea party members favor – such as national defense – also cost the most money.

The Shenandoah Valley Tea Party Patriots in recent months have traveled to the Richmond and Roanoke offices of Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner to lobby against government health care.

Monthly meetings such as one earlier this month at the Staunton Public Library included presentations on deficit reduction and global warming.

“We are unified in conservatism,’’ Richmond said.

A Feb. 8 newsletter from the Valley group exhorted members to contact Virginia’s congressional delegation about the budget deficit.

“Feel free to offer your budget-slashing ideas,’’ the newsletter encourages. “Major reductions in the size of government including the elimination of some government agencies are imperative.”

Enthusiastic local tea party members such as James Madison University senior Travis Geary, of Augusta County, said the movement should remain grassroots and non-bureaucratic.

Geary, a political science major, said he doesn’t think the movement needs local or national leaders.

“When we start building a vertical organization it becomes political, not principled,’’ Geary said. “The responsibility should be on the shoulders of each individual tea party.”

Geary said the tea party success must start with running candidates and winning elections at the local level, in city council and supervisors races.

If those candidates win there, they must cut spending on welfare, education and champion reform efforts such as expanding charter schools.

Conservative icon Ronald Reagan, the late president who swept into office in 1980, would have stood at the center of the tea party movement because of his stands on liberty, less government and a strong national defense, Dunn said.

Dunn said both the Republican Party and tea party movement need national leaders.

“[The tea party movement] is a force in search of a leader and the Republican Party is a force in search of a leader,’’ he said.

Geary said the most immediate task is building the tea party base and focusing on next fall’s congressional and gubernatorial elections.

Dunn said the fall does not offer enough time for tea party candidates to get on ballots.

Short-term, he said, it is up to Republicans to appeal to the tea party members.

“Short-term, time is on the side of the Republican party,’’ Dunn said. “Are they astute enough to take advantage?”

Tea partiers face challenges in pulling their ranks together and coalescing around candidates with real chances to win on election day, experts say. A recent Rasmussen Reports poll shows that the influence of a potential tea party candidacy has dropped since December.

In a three-way congressional contest, Rasmussen said the tea party candidate would garner 17 percent of the vote as contrasted with 23 percent in December.

Rasmussen said the change in the recent tea party poll showing is tied to shifts in voting by Republicans and voters not affiliated with either party.

In the purest sense despite its flaws, the tea party movement could be seen as a strength of the American system because people are getting involved in their government, former Sen. George Allen said in a Friday posting on Facebook.

“The tea party movement is exhilarating, vibrant and gives one hope for the future of the Republic. The people are the owners of our government,’’ Allen said.