After tonight’s HUGE victory in the Wisconsin recall, Scott Walker is now a governor, a conservative hero, and a Teavangelical Treasure.
This conservative Christian Tea Party-type lawmaker now sits atop the Teavangelical world, along with other political heavyweights like Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint (just to name a few). Appropriately, he thanked God first. It was a nice Teavangelical move.
When the dust settles and Scott Walker gets a moment to write a few thank you notes, the first one needs to go to the Tea Party. He can address the letters to all the national Tea Party groups (Tea Party Express, Tea Party Patriots, FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity, etc) who came to his aid during his time of need. He can also send a big thank you note to the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a conservative Christian organization that helped mobilize volunteers as well. There were other Christian organizations pitching in to help too.
The pundits are busy talking about what Walker’s victory means for the 2012 presidential race and that’s all fine and dandy (The Brody File predicts Wisconsin now becomes a toss-up state). But the real story of Walker’s victory is the fact that this “Badger Battle” was really a proxy fight between the Tea Party and the Unions.
Both sides invested MAJOR blood, sweat, tears and money into this fight and take a look at who won. This was an ideological battle between what the Tea Party stands for (tough fiscal decisions in tough economic times) and what the public unions want, which is for taxpayers to foot the bill. A message was sent and it was loud and clear.
What was that message? The message is "Don’t mess with the Tea Party." The movement is most effective when it is passionate and organized and focused all in one place. Wisconsin was ground zero and they came through with flying colors.
The Walker recall victory is a clear indication of what the Tea Party can do when it is firing on all cylinders. Imagine if national Tea Party groups decided to all come together (like in Wisconsin) and concentrate their efforts in one or two major presidential battleground states? Imagine the influence they could have.
The victory in Wisconsin doesn’t just belong to Scott Walker or his supporters in Wisconsin. It belongs to the Tea Party. It’s one of the movement’s biggest triumphs to date and something tells me they’re not through yet.
The Teavangelicals are lurking. They can strike at any time. Scary? If you’re a liberal, you bet.