The Daily Beast's Joe McLean: The Tea Party and the Politics of Eschatology

Durer's Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Joe McLean of The Daily Beast provides a fascinating look at the apocalyptic character of the Tea Party, an outlook that held by adherents that does not allow for normative political give-and-take and legislative compromise.

While noting that political forecasts are quite subject to error, McLean sees two possible futures for the GOP.

In the first scenario, McLean notes that the mainstream GOP might prevail via a popular "pragmatist"(perhaps Chris Christie or someone like him) who unites enough of the Republican coalition to win.

The second path is that of the fragmentation of the Republican Party, and the rise of a new third force separate from the GOP.

Whatever the exact path, McLean sees ultimate failure for the eschatology-based politics, along with its fire-breathing prophets and prophetesses.

The Daily Beast article by Joe McLean is linked below.

The Daily Beast: The Apocalyptic Impulse of the Tea Party

"Of course, the Tea Party is not just composed of members of the Christian right. Many are genuine libertarians. Some nurse an unreconstructed Confederate grudge, while others harbor a thinly disguised racism. However, the real energy, the animating force for the movement comes from evangelicals, of whom Ted Cruz, Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin are the most strident. These are the modern-day 'apocalyptic prophets.'"

---Joe McLean, The Daily Beast