Obama's policies prompted a strong political and ideological backlash across the US, with the advent of the Tea Party in 2009. This chapter explains how the Tea Party movement accentuated partisan polarization. This trend has become a feature of US politics since the end of the 1970s. The Grand Old Party (GOP; another name for the Republican Party) believed in reducing government, as the anti-tax activist Grover Norquist put it, ‘to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub’ (quoted in Homans, 2017).

Once Republicans gained the House in the 2010 midterm elections, they systematically obstructed Obama's policies. This led to a pattern of legislative inactivity and congressional gridlock. Even the traditionally more moderate and consensus-oriented Senate became divided along partisan lines. The Republican Party was referred to as ‘the party of NO’. Partisan warfare also took place at the state level. Newly elected conservative governors refused to implement health-care reform. They also mounted legal challenges against the Affordable Care Act (ACA). On welfare reform, Republicans were essentially engaged in symbolic gestures. Representatives sought to convince their electoral base that they would stand up for conservative principles.

The Tea Party: old wine in new bottles?

In 2008, the election of Barack Obama was a pivotal moment in US history because it symbolized the empowerment of a multiracial America. A total of 95% of African-Americans voted for Barack Obama in 2008, compared with 83% for Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996. In addition, 67% of Hispanics and 66% of people aged 18–29 voted for Obama, as did 53% of women. Although Obama carefully distanced himself from African-American and other minority ethnic voters by emphasizing that he was the president of all Americans, his election helped crystallize a political backlash among older, mainly white, Republican voters. These voters coalesced around the Tea Party in 2009 and 2010. On 9 February 2009, CNBC commentator Rick Santelli called for a ‘Chicago Tea Party’ to protest the administration's mortgage plan. The Santelli rant was followed by another call to arms by Fox News conservative commentator Glenn Beck in April 2009. Fox News acted as the orchestrator of Tea Party rallies by announcing demonstrations even before they occurred (Skocpol and Williamson, 2012).