Politics & Power Quote by Charles Krauthammer

Krauthammer’s line is less a history lesson than a warning wrapped in a smirk: Democrats, he implies, are about to do their opponents’ most important job for them, free of charge. The sharpest word here is “nationalize.” In American midterms, parties usually live or die on local races, local scandals, and local incumbency advantages. Gingrich’s “Contract with America” mattered not only for its policies but for its marketing genius: it turned dozens of fragmented contests into a single referendum on Democratic rule. That took discipline, message control, and a shared script.

Krauthammer’s subtext is that anti-Tea Party messaging would hand Republicans that same unifying frame without requiring any comparable organizational feat. If Democrats treat the Tea Party as the face of the GOP, he argues, they collapse internal Republican complexity into a clean enemy brand. Voters stop asking “Do I like my congressman?” and start asking “Do I want more of whatever this movement represents?” That’s a gift to a party trying to ride backlash against an unpopular status quo.

The timing is the tell. Writing in the shadow of the Obama presidency’s first two years - stimulus, health care, bailouts, and recession hangover - Krauthammer reads the Tea Party as a conduit for voter anger. His intent isn’t to praise the movement so much as to mock Democratic strategic instincts: punch at the loudest fringe, and you may accidentally supply the rallying banner that makes a wave possible.