Dems Lose Big, but it was to Establishment Republicans and the Religious Right

Sarah Posner writes:

The Tea Party is claiming credit for the Republican trouncing of the Democrats last night, but the Tea Party wave is just an illusion. This victory was by—and for—the theo-free-marketeers who have long controlled the GOP in the service of a “Christian nation” that boasts pro-big business legislation and policy.

With the GOP re-taking control of the House, and Mike Pence (another of those Tea Party-supporting Republicans who has always said, “I’m a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order”) eyeing 2012, Minnesota’s Michele Bachmann (who long ago declared herself a “fool for Christ”) is making noise about running for his leadership position. Bachmann, who jumped on the Tea Party bandwagon early but whose roots are “Christian nation” through and through, is proposing closed-door lessons on the Constitution for members of Congress. As she told the Values Voters Summit in September, the rights enumerated in the Constitution come from God. That may be a claim made by the Tea Party, but the religious right got there first. The Tea Party’s take on it is entirely derivative.