Graham: Tea party will ‘die out’ - Andy Barr
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says in a forthcoming article that the tea party movement is “unsustainable” and will “die out” because it lacks vision.
Graham made the comments to The New York Times as part of a profile in Sunday’s magazine written by Robert Draper.
Graham argues throughout the story that the Republican Party will eventually move away from the fringe and join him closer to the political middle but that, for now, it has shifted too far to the right.
“Everything I’m doing now in terms of talking about climate, talking about immigration, talking about Gitmo is completely opposite of where the tea party movement’s at,” Graham says. “The problem with the tea party, I think, is it’s just unsustainable because they can never come up with a coherent vision for governing the country. It will die out.”
Graham later says that the GOP has shifted so far that Ronald Reagan would have trouble getting elected in today’s party.
“We don’t have a lot of Reagan-type leaders in our party. Remember Ronald Reagan Democrats? I want a Republican that can attract Democrats,” Graham told the Times. “Ronald Reagan would have a hard time getting elected as a Republican today.”
Graham has had several run-ins with tea party activists in South Carolina, notably getting censured over his support for climate change legislation by the Lexington County Republican Party, whose leadership consists of several tea party activists