The Gravitational Force in the Republican Party

By Theda Skocpol

Pundits have shifted their assessments of Tea Party clout with each swing of the pendulum in the GOP primary season — starting with debates even before the voting in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and beyond.  Either the Tea Party is said to be flexing its muscles, beating the “GOP establishment.” Or it is declared to be falling apart and failing to register much impact.   The fortunes of Mitt Romney seem to determine which assessment is the favor of the day: if he does poorly, the Tea Party is strong; if he wins, the Tea Party is proving to be a paper tiger.

The trouble with all such assessments is twofold. First, they focus too much on the horse-race, attempting to label some candidates “Tea Partiers” and others “establishment” — while missing the big picture of the race to the right by all candidates in the GOP race.  And secondly, such assessments mistakenly hold the Tea Party to a standard it cannot meet.  Let me begin with the latter point, and come back to the former.

February Essay Dialogue: The Tea Party and the Republican Primaries

The race toward the nomination of a Republican presidential candidate seems to be narrowing but could see its most heated days ahead. Since it has arguably played an important role in recent national elections, one wonders how the Tea Party is shaping the Republican primaries and whether the movement will have a decisive role in the contest.

This month, Mobilizing Ideas has invited scholars and activists to weigh in on this topic in the midst of the 2012 primary season. Contributors incorporate public opinion data, survey data, social movement theory, intuition gained from years of studying movements, and activist experience to offer various perspectives on the role of the Tea Party in the Republican primaries.  The essays touch on the Tea Party’s enduring/waning influence on Republican discourse,  the tactics of the movement from an activist’s perspective, how Tea Party Republicans differ from Establishment Republicans, the relationship of the movement to various candidates, the future of the Tea Party, and other aspects of this fascinating movement.

We would like to thank the following distinguished scholars and activists for contributing to this dialogue:

Neal Caren, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (essay)
Tina Fetner, McMaster University (essay)
Richard Lloyd and Steven Tepper, Vanderbilt University (essay)
David Meyer, University of California, Irvine (essay)
Chris Parker, University of Washington (essay)
Theda Skocpol, Harvard University (essay)
Jenni White, Tea Party activist, R.O.P.E (essay)

Thank you for supporting Mobilizing Ideas.  Happy reading!

Grace Yukich, David Ortiz, Rory McVeigh, and Dan Myers
Editors in Chief

Planned Parenthood/Susan G. Komen Timeline

The Washington Post offers a timeline of events leading up to a very public fight between these two organizations. Left off this timeline are the actions taken both in opposition to and in favor of Planned Parenthood in between this timeline.

In particular, the grassroots efforts aimed at (and successful in) SGK’s reversal of this decision happened through a Move-On petition, in-person boycott tactics, an elite show of support from U.S. Senators, and online tactics culminating in sizeable donations.

No-degree social movement thinkers

Who do you think of when you think of a social movement theorist? A professor? Two of the authors who have taught me the most about social movement strategy have only high school degrees:  Linda Stout and the late Bill Moyer. I very rarely see either of them cited in the social movement literature. I suspect that their books haven’t reached all their potential audiences in part because of the authors’ lack of college credentials.

Firsthand activist experience is often thought of as fodder only for case studies, not for generating broad theory. But both of these authors could create useful new concepts precisely because of their long, long activist experience.

Would you like an oil pipeline on your front lawn?

Image taken by Charles Menzies

I just wanted to draw attention to the opposition First Nations in British Columbia are mounting against the Northern Gateway Pipeline.

This pipeline would transport oil from Alberta to the coast of British Columbia.

The Canadian government and associated corporate interests are pushing the pipeline because it will have “economic benefits”.

There is a huge problem with this.

It will run right through First Nation’s land.

Most of British Columbia is First Nation land.  No treaties have been signed.

The only way for the government to aquire rights to FN land is through treaties.  And under international law only sovereign nations can make treaties.

As a non-Native here are the two analogies I come up with for what is happening:

1. The U.S. puts a pipeline through Canadian territory without consent.  Canadians should accept this because there are “economic benefits.”

2.  A company puts a pipeline on a homeowner’s front lawn without consent. The homeowner should be grateful because there will be “economic benefits”.

The images for this post were taken by my colleague Charles Menzies who was at the recent Prince Rupert demonstration.

Image taken by Charles Menzies

Loan Fee Dropped After Online Protest

In another example of online protest making a difference, the New York Times reported that  Sallie Mae, the biggest student loan provider in the U.S., changed its policies on fees charged to unemployed former students who were struggling to make payments on their student loans.  This change, announced in early February, came after an online petition gathered over 77,000 signatures. Given the number of other businesses that have changed their tunes on fees following online protest (think Bank of America and its moribund debit card fee), this appears to be one area where online protest has significant potential to generate change.

A New Generation of Black Church Activists?

The New York Times recently published a set of essays in its Room for Debate series, exploring how black church activism has changed since the 1960s. The impetus for the debate– “Black Churches and a New Generation of Protest”– is the recognition that black church activism has declined since the days of Martin Luther King, Jr., coupled with recent calls from African American church leaders to “Occupy the Dream” by engaging in protests at Federal Reserve banks around the country.

Several distinguished scholars and religious leaders participate in the debate about the current state of black church activism, writing about the issues they see as most pressing for black churches to address. Some argue for a focus on education and better reintegration of former prisoners; others recommend an emphasis on environmental justice.

“Lessons” from OWS inside and outside the classroom

On her CNN Newsroom morning show (Feb 7), Kyra Phillips set up a segment about college courses on OWS saying that OWS “is not just in the streets but in the classrooms” and that “kids are writing papers about it.” She interviews Roosevelt University professor of political science, Jeff Edwards and a graduate student in his course, Ameshia Cross. Edwards, who is a social movement scholar, says it is worth having a course about the Occupy movement because it has changed the discourse of American politics and has “staying power.”  It also appeals to students because it is “youth led.” Cross, his student, is reminded of a comment a professor once made when she was an undergraduate – that the new generation is not interested in social movements. The discussion then moved to a comparison of OWS with “classic” social movements. All agreed that the Occupy movement is comparable to the civil rights movement and women’s movement. As Cross says, the Occupy movement “lives up” to that kind of comparison.  Phillips then asks Edwards whether a course on the OWS movement would be taught in 5 years. Edwards says yes. He suggests that effective movements last a long time, and presumably, the goals of the Occupy movement– no matter how loosely defined – will not be met any time soon and thus will have to play out over an extended period of time (see also The Occupy Movement Is Now Being Offered As A Political Science Course).

Police and the OWS Protection Racket

While the protests in Zuccoti Park are presently on hiatus, members of the 99% movement continue to engage in protests and other forms of activism around the country. Police, for their part, continue to maintain a visible presence at movement events, while episodically engaging in more repressive actions, such as clearing protest sites and arresting demonstrators.

Interactive Timeline of the Arab Spring

At the Guardian: http://gu.com/p/2nf4k. Thanks to Bryant Crubaugh for the link.

Where is Wall Street? Let the Crowd Tell Us

Map of locations of sit-ins in southern US cities, from Kenneth Andrews and Michael Biggs' 2006 American Sociological Review article "The Dynamics of Protest Diffusion."

Recent efforts to add a geo-spatial dimension to studies of protest have given social movement scholars the chance to draw some really interesting conclusions. Dan Myers and Beth Caniglia found how close your protest needed to be to New York City to have a hope of appearing in the New York Times. Kenneth Andrews and Michael Biggs determined how sit-ins rapidly diffused from city to city in the south in 1960. And Robert Sampson, Doug McAdam, Heather MacIndoe, and Simon Weffer-Elizondo established what neighborhood characteristics really mattered in where collective action occurred over 30 years in Chicago. While these studies asked different questions and focused on different places, they had one major component in common: they hinged on the painstaking collection of data from a variety of sources to identify the location and characteristics of large numbers of protest events.