Ran across this interview with George Will, who makes reference to fissures and factions within the Tea Party as being a healthy thing. While there have long been competing groups (e.g. Tea Party Patriots, Tea Party Express, etc.), I have not noticed much ideological difference among them.
Thinking about this idea of ideologically differing factions, I believe this could be a useful concept to explore for those of us who might want to strike a note of dissent within the GOP, but disassociate ourselves from some of the nutters and fraudsters.
What factions currently exist that might be called “tea party” of some stripe? Are these the same factions that have always populated the conservative movement? I’d really like to get away from something as ideologically trivial (however tactically important) as Freedomworks vs. AFP. (Or Freedomworks vs. Freedomworks.)
doubleplusundead 
I parted company with Will a long time ago. I have always understood the concept
that the Bill Of Rights were meant to be INDIVIDUAL rights, not collective rights.
I bought one of his books in which he claimed that burning an American flag
violated the collective rights of all Americans, and should be banned on that
basis.
This is the same argument that the left uses in their warped interpretation of
their radical agenda as it relates to their view of a “Living Constitution.”
These RINO’s miss the concept of individual rights from beginning to end.
The establishment dickheads will sell us all into slavery in order to receive
good press from the N.Y. Slimes!
I don’t know if I’d say ‘fissures’, what people always miss is that there is no Tea Party, there are just tea partiers wirh different focuses. What ties them together is ensmallening gov’t.
It took me a while to realize that “ensmallening” was the opposite of “embiggening”. I almost reached for my dictionary. Re: the tea party- I think there is general agreement that the partiers should stick to the main issues of smaller, cheaper government, lower taxes, less regulation, and secure borders. We can work out the other issues later.
It took me a while to realize that “ensmallening” was the opposite of “embiggening”.
It’s a perfectly cromulent word.
What? I always go for the low-hanging fruit.
Since there is no single TEA party, with a charter, platform, or central committee, even stating that there can be fissures is an overstatement. How can you have “cracks” in something that was never together? The TEA party is a media creation, not an actual organized party. It consists of several local and regional groups that are distinct from each other and have organized themselves as they see fit. I think the TEA party express was set up by entrenched establishment Republicans so they could claim “TEA Party” endorsements (might be one of the other groups calling itself “TEA Party”).