That has been the case for awhile and not anything new.
Pretty sure the emergence of the Tea Party was because of Fox News antics.
Actually, Ron Paul unofficially started the socalled tea party back on Dec 16th, 2007 when his moneybomb commemorated the anniversary of the original tea party back before the American Revolution against Britain. Officially, Rick Santelli is/was a stock exchange floor commentator on CNBC (the US market channel) and there's a youtube of his rant back in '09 that sparked people across the board being pissed at the bank bailouts and the like. Republicans were becoming fed up w/ big spenders in their own party and many independents and democrats were on board.Pretty sure the emergence of the Tea Party was because of Fox News antics.
However, the tea party got co-opted by Fox and certain elements of talk radio by taking what it formerly was (fierce opponents to spending) and trying to drive it into something different (patriotism, war, religion, etc) which defused the former importance and then alienated indies and democrats away from the new material that isn't up their alley. Then, as Rand Paul made the case that we shouldn't be arming terrorists in other countries a few years ago, the neocons along w/ Obama and Hillary had their way to create more terror outlets over their by screwing around in Libya and Syria and now we see what the fruits of all of this is.
That's an accurate rendition. Although there is a hard core "tea party conservative" base in the Repub now, which is highly influencial and will likely get more so.
