Archive for the ‘Tea Party’ Category

Tea Parties | Parties | eHow

How Do I Get Started if I Would Like to Have a Mad Hatter Tea Party?

The Mad Hatter is a character made famous in Alice in Wonderland. Get started with a Mad Hatter themed tea party with help from your go-to girl for all things Read More

Ladies' Tea Party Favor Ideas

Whether you are hosting a tea party as a bridal shower, church gathering, fundraiser or just to spend some time with friends, favors provide a special touch to your elegant Read More

Decorating Ideas for Hats for a Tea Party

Tea parties are popular with females of all ages, from grandmothers to little girls. Many tea parties have a theme, such as a garden tea, a girls' night out tea, Read More

Women's Tea Party Ideas

Tea parties are an all-time favorite for intimate gatherings with close friends and special celebrations. Follow these essential tips to host a successful tea party. Read More

Tea Party Sandwich Ideas

A tea party includes details with a degree of refinement, as ladies gather for lively chatter and delicious refreshments. Serve elegant tea sandwiches that are light, yet flavorful, for the Read More

How to Set a Tray for Tea

Full English tea service, complete with tea, savory sandwiches, scones, sweets and dessert, is a rare experience rather than the every-afternoon norm. The pomp and circumstance of the tradition is Read More

Fun Games for a Ladies' Tea Party

Along with purchasing several flavors of teas and making some finger foods, organize some games to help make your guests feel at ease and keep the conversation rolling. Board games, Read More

Religious Tea Party Ideas

Host a religious tea party to share your faith, or encourage fellow believers through fellowship. The practice of sharing tea allows women to dress up and get together in a Read More

Tea Party Ideas for 5-Year-Olds

Five-year-old little girls love to play dress up and have tea parties. Inviting friends, dolls and teddy bears to join the party encourages imaginative play. Adding fun touches, craft projects Read More

Tea Party Name Tag Ideas

China cups and saucers, sweet treats and elaborate table settings characterize the best tea parties, whether for children or adults. What's even better is connecting with old friends and making Read More

Victorian Tea Party Games

Tea parties were a popular pastime in the Victorian era, both in the United States and Great Britain. A Victorian-themed tea party teaches children about the time period and gives Read More

How to Throw an Irish Tea Party

The cultural tradition of an Irish tea party makes a great theme party for adults and children. A strong cup of Irish tea mixes well with up to 1/3 cup Read More

Tea Party Ideas for Boys

Once the province of ladies and little girls, tea parties are no longer obviously gender specific, and many children of both sexes find them enjoyable and entertaining. They are also Read More

How to Word a Tea Party Invitation

A tea party is such a special occasion in itself, whether an elegant affair with live music, gowns and curried chicken tea sandwiches or a Teddy bear tea where lemonade Read More

Tea Party Theme Ideas

A tea party is a perfect choice for an afternoon entertainment, for adults or children of any age. What's more, the tea party concept is flexible and accommodating. Your event Read More

How to Identify the Markings on a Silver Coffee & Tea Set

Buying and evaluating antiques has become a very popular hobby. Understanding and identifying what you have found can be the most difficult part of this process. If you have a Read More

Games for an Adult Tea Party

Tea parties conjure images of ladies in lovely Victorian garb, sitting at lace-covered tables, sipping from fine china. Of course, tea parties today need not be so formal and games Read More

Rainbow Tea Decoration Ideas

Rainbow teas are most often hosted by Christian women as church fund-raisers. Each color of the rainbow represents a characteristic or promise of God. For example, the color red stands Read More

How to Throw A Fancy Tea Party For Little Girls

Little girls are often enthralled by the idea of having tea parties. To truly throw a proper tea party, you must do more than simply serve tea. From the setting Read More

Conversation Ideas for a Tea Party

Tea parties are where ladies and gentlemen share a cup of tea with some light refreshments. Conversation is an important part of tea parties. Start guests talking by placing these Read More

High Tea Party Menu Ideas

A high tea menu contains sweets and breads that complement the tea. Besides brewing a pot of English evening tea for the guests, have a pot of hot water and Read More

How to Select Music for a Tea Party

Deciding on the music for your tea party is not that hard--it's the budget you need to consider. A professional musician can supply live tunes or you can rely on Read More

How to Dress for a Tea Party

Tea parties aren't just for young girls and their teddy bears anymore. Although youngsters still enjoy clinking their tea cups and nibbling on finger sandwiches, adults are also partaking in Read More

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Tea Parties | Parties | eHow

Tea Party movement | American political movement | Britannica.com

Tea Party movement, Tea Party movement: Tea Party rally in Sacramento, California, 2010Steve Yeater/APconservative populist social and political movement that emerged in 2009 in the United States, generally opposing excessive taxation and government intervention in the private sector while supporting stronger immigration controls.

Historically, populist movements in the United States have arisen in response to periods of economic hardship, beginning with the proto-populist Greenback and Granger movements in the 1860s and 70s and continuing with William Jennings Bryans Populist Party in the 1890s and Louisiana politician Huey Longs Share Our Wealth program during the Great Depression of the 1930s. In the wake of the financial crisis that swept the globe in 2008, populist sentiment was once more on the rise. The catalyst for what would become known as the Tea Party movement came on February 19, 2009, when Rick Santelli, a commentator on the business-news network CNBC, referenced the Boston Tea Party (1773) in his response to Pres. Barack Obamas mortgage relief plan. Speaking from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Santelli heatedly stated that the bailout would subsidize the losers mortgages and proposed a Chicago Tea Party to protest government intervention in the housing market. The five-minute clip became an Internet sensation, and the Tea Party rallying cry struck a chord with those who had already seen billions of dollars flow toward sagging financial firms. Unlike previous populist movements, which were characterized by a distrust of business in general and bankers in particular, the Tea Party movement focused its ire at the federal government and extolled the virtues of free market principles.

Within weeks, Tea Party chapters began to appear around the United States, using social media sites such as Facebook to coordinate protest events. They were spurred on by conservative pundits, particularly by Fox News Channels Glenn Beck. The generally libertarian character of the movement drew disaffected Republicans to the Tea Party banner, and its antigovernment tone resonated with members of the paramilitary militia movement. Obama himself served as a powerful recruiting tool, as the Tea Party ranks were swelled by Birthersindividuals who claimed that Obama had been born outside the United States and was thus not eligible to serve as president (despite a statement by the director of the Hawaii State Department of Health attesting that she had seen Obamas birth certificate and could confirm that he had been born in the state)as well as by those who considered Obama a socialist and those who believed that Obama, who frequently discussed his Christianity publicly, was secretly a Muslim.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: protest against health care reform legislation in Washington, D.C., Nov. 5, 2009Roger L. WollenbergUPI/LandovThe Tea Party movements first major action was a nationwide series of rallies on April 15, 2009, that drew more than 250,000 people. April 15 is historically the deadline for filing individual income tax returns, and protesters claimed that Tea was an acronym for Taxed Enough Already. The movement gathered strength throughout the summer of 2009, with its members appearing at congressional town hall meetings to protest the proposed reforms to the American health care system.

At the national level, a number of groups claimed to represent the Tea Party movement as a whole, but, with a few exceptions, the Tea Party lacked a clear leader. When former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin resigned as governor of Alaska in July 2009, she became an unofficial spokesperson of sorts on Tea Party issues, and in February 2010 she delivered the keynote address at the first National Tea Party Convention. Beckwhose 9/12 Project, so named for Becks 9 principles and 12 values as well as the obvious allusion to the September 11 attacks, helped draw tens of thousands of protesters to the U.S. Capitol on September 12, 2009offered daily affirmations of Tea Party beliefs on his television and radio shows. FreedomWorks, a supply-side economics advocacy group headed by former Republican House majority leader Dick Armey, provided logistical support for large Tea Party gatherings, and Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina supported Tea Party candidates from within the Republican establishment. The diffuse collection of groups and individuals who made up the Tea Party movement was unique in the history of American populism, as it seemed to draw strength from its ability to stick apart.

The absence of a central organizing structure was cited as proof of the Tea Partiers grassroots credentials, but it also meant that the movements goals and beliefs were highly localized and even personalized. Nonetheless, the Tea Party proved its influence at the polls. In a special election in New Yorks 23rd congressional district in November 2009, Tea Partiers mobilized behind Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, forcing Republican candidate Dierdre Scozzafava from the race just days before the election. This tactic backfired, however, and the seat went to Democrat Bill Owens; Owens was the first Democrat to represent the district since the 19th century. The Tea Party fared better in Massachusetts in January 2010, in the special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Ted Kennedy. Dark-horse candidate Scott Brown defeated Kennedys presumptive successor, Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley, in a race that shifted the balance in the Senate, depriving the Democrats of the 60-vote filibuster-proof majority they had held since July 2009. In May 2010 the Tea Party exerted its influence again, this time in Kentucky, where Rand Paul, son of former Libertarian presidential candidate Ron Paul, won the Republican primary for a seat in the U.S. Senate. Paul defeated Trey Grayson, Kentuckys secretary of state and the favoured choice of Senate minority leader and Kentuckian Mitch McConnell, in a race that was widely seen as a repudiation of the Republican Party establishment.

Across the country, dozens of Tea Party-affiliated candidates won the Republican nominations for their respective U.S. Senate, House, and gubernatorial races. The November 2010 midterms promised to be a referendum as much on the Tea Party as on President Obama, particularly as the push-pull relationship between the Tea Party and the Republican Party continued. In some states Tea Party candidates won endorsement from local Republican groups, while in others they provoked a backlash from the Republican establishment. Some longtime Republicans, a number of whom had lost to Tea Party candidates in their respective primary races, chose to contest the general election as independents or only lukewarmly endorsed their previous opponents in the general election. In the end, it seemed that the Tea Party label mattered less than the strength of an individual candidate.

In Delaware, for example, Christine ODonnell, who endured lampooning by the national media because of her views (particularly those shared on a comedy show years earlier), lost the Senate race by a wide margin, and in Nevada embattled Senate majority leader Harry Reid, despite low favourability ratings, defeated Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle. In Kentucky Rand Paul, perhaps identified more closely with the Tea Party than any other candidate, coasted to a comfortable victory, and in Florida Tea Party nominee Marco Rubio won a three-way Senate race that included the sitting Republican governor, Charlie Crist. Dan Maes, running as a Republican with Tea Party backing, faded from contention for the Colorado governors office after former Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo entered the race on the American Constitution Party ticket.

Perhaps the most surprising result came from Palins home state of Alaska, where the Tea Party candidate for the U.S. Senate, Joe Miller, won the Republican nomination but faced a strong general election challenge from incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski, who chose to run as a write-in candidate. On election day the sum of votes for write-in candidates outpaced those for either Miller or the Democratic nominee, and, after weeks of vote tallying and almost two months of legal challenges, Murkowski was certified as the winner on December 30, 2010.

While these contests constituted some of the most conspicuous individual examples of Tea Party influence, the 2010 midterm elections saw the Republicans gain approximately 60 seats to take control of the House and reduce the Democratic majority in the Senate. Many observers credited this performance to the interest and enthusiasm generated by the Tea Party, and over the next two years the Republican Party endeavoured to bring Tea Party supporters into the Republican mainstream and to avoid the fratricidal competition that had cost them a number of races in 2010. One notable addition to the 2012 Republican Party platform was the inclusion of language opposing Agenda 21, a United Nations (UN) resolution that promoted sustainable growth and that some Tea Party activists believed represented a UN plot to subvert American sovereignty. In addition, both Rand Paul and Rubio were featured in prominent speaking slots at the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Although Tea Party candidate Ted Cruz coasted to an easy victory in his race for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas, that result was far from typical for both the Tea Party and the Republicans in the November 2012 elections. Rep. Todd Akin, a member of the House Tea Party caucus, scuttled his bid for a vulnerable U.S. Senate seat in Missouri when he stated that cases of legitimate rape very rarely result in pregnancy. Tea Party support enabled Richard Mourdock to defeat six-term incumbent Richard Lugar in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate in Indiana, but Mourdock did irreversible damage to his own campaign when he stated that pregnancy as a result of rape was something that God intended to happen. First-term Tea Party representatives such as Floridas Allen West and Joe Walsh of Illinois were turned out in their reelection bids, and Tea Party icon Michele Bachmann narrowly survived a Democratic challenge for her U.S. congressional seat in Minnesota. In Massachusetts, Sen. Scott Brown, who had alienated some of his Tea Party supporters by crossing party lines to vote with Democrats on a variety of issues, was defeated by Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren. In an election where it was widely believed that Republicans had a reasonable chance of winning control of the Senate, they ultimately ceded small but significant gains to the Democrats in both houses of Congress.

In December 2012 DeMint, one of the most visible faces of the Tea Party in the U.S. Senate, stepped down to become president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Some analysts opined that the Tea Party appeared to be a spent force, and in February 2013 Republican strategist Karl Rove founded the Conservative Victory Project, a super political action committee (PAC) whose stated goal was to intervene at the primary stage and prevent the nomination of weak or unelectable candidates. Tea Party groups immediately criticized Rovewhose other super PACs had spent $175 million in the 2012 election cycle to little effectfor attempting to thwart what they considered to be the wishes of the conservative base. As the divide between the Republican establishment and the Tea Party threatened to become an irreparable breach, a scandal involving the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) quickly brought the two groups back together.

In May 2013 the IRS revealed that it had unfairly targeted for additional scrutiny conservative groups that had applied for tax-exempt status as 501(c)(4) nonprofit social welfare organizations. The 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission had spurred politically affiliated groups representing a wide range of ideological viewpoints to seek 501(c)(4) status, which allowed them to preserve the anonymity of their donors. Because groups with 501(c)(4) status were prohibited from making the promotion of a particular candidate or political viewpoint their primary activity, IRS workers attempted to ascertain the degree of political involvement of certain applicants. In some cases, this involved invasive questions about donor activity and excessively burdensome delays on a final determination of tax-exempt status. Most notably, roughly one-third of the 300 organizations flagged for additional review contained the words Tea Party, Patriots, or 9/12 in their names. Although a review of the case by the Treasury Departments inspector general did not uncover overt political bias, many within the Tea Party felt that their worst suspicions of the government had been confirmed, and the scandal served to reinvigorate a movement that had struggled to regain its footing in the wake of the 2012 elections.

Later in 2013, Tea Party members in the House and the Senate demonstrated their influence when they used the threat of a government shutdown as a bargaining tool in their ongoing campaign against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The health care law, known colloquially as Obamacare, was Obamas signature legislative acvhievement, and, since its passage in 2010, Republicans in the House had voted more than 40 times to repeal, defund, or delay it. DeMint used his position at the Heritage Foundation to direct the campaign, and he embarked on a cross-country speaking tour during the August congressional recess to bolster support for it. Throughout September the Republican-led House parried with the Democratic-led Senate. The Senate rejected numerous bills that proposed funding the government at the expense of the PPACA, and Cruz delivered a 21-hour address against the PPACA on the floor of the Senate (for procedural reasons, the speech did not technically qualify as a filibuster).

With Congress unable to agree on a continuing resolution to fund the federal government, those parts of the government deemed nonessential were shut down on October 1, the start of the fiscal year, and some 800,000 federal workers were furloughed. House Republicans sponsored a series of bills that would have funded select federal agencies, but Obama refused to discuss anything short of a full reopening of the government. Business leaders, traditionally strong supporters of the Republican Party, vocally criticized the Tea Party and the tactics that led to the shutdown. More than 250 chambers of commerce and trade associations signed an open letter advocating the funding of the government. As the shutdown entered its third week, the Treasury Department approached the limit of its borrowing power (the so-called debt ceiling); on October 17 the United States would risk defaulting on its debts.

Trying to navigate between the White House and Senate on the left and Tea Party representatives and the Heritage Foundations PAC on the right, House Speaker John Boehner was unable to craft a compromise bill to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. As the October 17 deadline neared, the rating agency Fitch threatened to downgrade the U.S. credit rating, and attention shifted to the Senate, where Minority Leader McConnell and Majority Leader Reid agreed on a measure to fund the government through January 15, 2014, and to raise the debt ceiling through February 7. Boehner brought the bill passed by the Senate to a vote in the House, where it easily passed, drawing support from 87 Republicans as well as all 198 voting Democrats in the chamber. In the early morning hours of October 17, Obama signed the bill, which authorized the creation of a committee to deal with long-term budget issues but made no significant concessions to Tea Party demands.

As the 2014 primary season began, the political fortunes of the Tea Party once again appeared to be in decline. Seen as the group most responsible for the government shutdown and facing increasingly vocal and robust challenges from pro-business lobbies such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Tea Party watched its candidates suffer losses in a string of primary contests. Across the country, establishment Republicans, many of whom had tacked right to embrace elements of the Tea Party platform, won nominations in closely watched races. In May 2014 McConnell easily defeated a well-funded Tea Party challenger to win the Republican U.S. Senate primary in Kentucky, and incumbent Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho was victorious in a race in which outside pro-business groups spent more than $2 million to fend off a candidate who was backed by the Tea Party-affiliated Club for Growth.

The narrative of a resurgent Republican establishment took hold in the media, as the sole bright spot for the Tea Party appeared to be in Mississippi, where six-term incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran was forced into a runoff against Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel for the Republican Senate nomination. That narrative suffered a stunning blow on June 10, however, when Republican House majority leader Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia was defeated by a dark horse Tea Party candidate in the Republican primary electiona vote that was widely seen as a rejection of the incumbents support for immigration reform. Cantor, who had outspent his opponent roughly 40 to 1 and held a comfortable lead in opinion polling prior to the primary, ultimately lost by more than 11 points to university professor David Brat, who had received virtually no support from national Tea Party groups.

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Tea Party movement | American political movement | Britannica.com

Tea Party: 20 Themed Tea Parties with Recipes for Every …

Enjoy life. Drink tea. Celebrate often. Tracy Stern is passionate about tea. She has created wildly popular lines of teas and tea-based beauty products and has hosted hundreds of stylish tea parties to celebrate all sorts of occasions. She has introduced a new generation to the pleasures of tea without any of its traditional stuffiness. In Tea Party, she encourages everyone to make their next gathering that much more special by incorporating tea into the menu.

Starting with tips on choosing and brewing teasfrom white and green teas to herbal rooibos and different black teasTea Party then shares more than seventy-five recipes, both savory and sweet, as part of twenty themed tea parties. Stern features classic tea accompaniments such as Scones with Clotted Cream and Cucumber-Mint Tea Sandwiches as well as novel recipes that use flavorful and healthful tea as an ingredient, including Homemade Potato Fries with Ceylon Tea Salt and Tea-Scented Chocolate Truffles. Above all, the focus is on fun, not fuss.

The party suggestions are perfect for afternoons with friends, bridal and baby showers, cocktail and dinner parties, picnics, and brunches. A Mad Hatters Tea Partyfor a birthday or an unbirthdaywill delight kids and adults alike with tea sandwiches made with edible flowers followed by Eat Me! Cupcakes. Chai Breakfast Tea reveals a fantastic recipe for the sweetly spiced irresistible drink along with recipes for chai-scented pancakes and candied almonds. Ideas and inspirations abound for fabulous, easy, and affordable invitations, decorations, table settings, and charming party favors that tie into each partys theme.

Featuring beautiful color photography throughout, Tea Party is a hip, up-to-date slant on a beloved tradition, inspiring everyone to drink a little more tea, celebrate a little more often, and enjoy life a whole lot more.

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Tea Party: 20 Themed Tea Parties with Recipes for Every ...

How to throw an afternoon tea party | BBC Good Food

Enjoying afternoon tea while perched on a gilded hotel armchair is a fine British tradition, but hardly sustainable as a regular pursuit. Throwing your own afternoon tea party means you can stick to your own budget, plus you can select your favourite finger food. We have some suggestions for throwing a soiree in style. The basic kit

If you own a tiered cake stand, dust it off and use it as the centerpiece of your table. Otherwise, use your best crockery and make it a little more special with lace-like doilies, folded napkins and name place signs.

If you want to go all out, charity shops are a good source for reasonable floral Chinaware - don't worry if the patterns are mismatched. Don't forget your teapot, teacups, cutlery and cake slices for serving.

Extend your table and throw on a table cloth - if you don't have one handy, fabric shops sell cheap spotted, floral and striped material by the metre. String up some bunting or, if you're feeling ambitious, bake up some edible bunting biscuits.

While you're at it, you could make some place-name cookies and ice them with your guests' names. Pop them in paper bags so your guests have a little present to take away - or just snaffle them as an entre. Coconut & cinnamon place-name cookies Edible name place biscuits

Make sure the sugar and milk is set on the table ready to pour your guests a cuppa as they sit down. Try to provide a variety of tea - Earl Grey, peppermint, camomile, fruit, herbal and, of course, English Breakfast.

Iced teamakes for a more refreshing tipple in warmer weather, and adding a touch of Pimm'swill really break the ice. You could also crack open the fizz and serve up asloe gin royaleor orange juice-basedmimosa- all the better if you have time for a nap before dinnertime.

There aren't any rules when it comes to the food, but a standard afternoon tea comprises a layer of sandwiches, a layer of cakes and a layer of scones or teacakes. However, you could also throw in pastries, petits fours or biscuits.

Don't wear yourself out by taking on too many ambitious bites, but if you feel like a challenge make sure you get your timings right.

These require minimal effort, but get ahead by preparing your fillings in advance and assembling just before proceedings begin to avoid the dreaded soggy sarnie.

Selection of summer sandwiches Carrot & raisin sandwiches Salmon club sandwich Best-ever crab sandwiches Smoked salmon & avocado open sandwich on rye bread

Scones are best eaten on the day and don't take long to whip up but if you want to get ahead, freeze a batch and defrost them in a low oven. Serve warm with lashings of jam - decant a pot of homemade preserve into a pretty bowl.

Scones:

Classic scones with jam and clotted cream Lemon drizzle scones Walnut scones Cherry scones

Jam:

Keep it simple:

A little effort:

Sugared flower shortbreads Carrot cake cookeis Ginger cookie sandwiches with lemon mascarpone Coconut nice Strawberry & cream roly polys

Just the mere mention of Parisian-standard pastry is enough to send shivers down the spine of your average home cook. If you're willing to take them on, prepare the pastry or biscuits the night before.

Raspberry millefeuilles Mini eclairs Chinon apple tarts Salted caramel & popcorn crumble choux buns Creme brulee tartlets

Individual portions are the key here, so avoid making a large cake and bake up something dinky.

Coffee & walnut flapjacks Blood orange & poppy drizzle muffins Little pistachio cakes Coconut chai traybake Strawberry & polenta cupcakes

Pull out all the stops and serve up something really special.

Blood orange & dark chocolate madeleines Star anise meringues with mango coulis Apple rose tart Raspberry, lemon and frangipane tart Iced vanilla & caramel profiteroles

Lemon bars Doughnut muffins Gypsy tart with lemon cream Lingonberry & ginger cheesecake pots Seville meringue pie with pomegranate Quick & easy tiramisu Bourbon, black cherry & bacon brownies

Have you thrown your own afternoon tea party? Share your tips with us below. Or if you still need inspiration, take a look through our afternoon tea recipe collection.

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How to throw an afternoon tea party | BBC Good Food

Donald Trump’s campaign threatens to steal tea party thunder …

Always a bit of a rebel, Debbie Dooley was so frustrated in 2009 over bank bailouts and stimulus packages that she threw herself into organizing Atlantas first tea party rally.

Today, the daughter of a Southern preacher has shifted her energy and passion into electing Donald Trump as the latest Washington outsider to shake up the status quo.

No matter that many of Trumps policies stray from the tea partys original small-government ideals. The tough-talking billionaire ignites that same anti-establishment fervor that fired up many tea party foot soldiers like Dooley.

In the process, Trump has recast their earlier championsnamely tea party darling Sen. Ted Cruz as disappointing outsiders-turned-insiders who cater to corporate donors and fail to deliver on big promises.

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The support for Trump is not only a screw-you to the Republican establishment, its a screw-you to the conservative establishment, said Dooley, 57, an energy consultant. [People] are sick and tired of the same old, same old just money corrupting the political process. They work hard, they vote for elected officials and they expect them to keep their promises.

Trumps candidacy has not only fractured the Republican Party, its threatening to break apart the tea party movement and erode a once-powerful voting block that has driven conservative politics and elections for the past seven years.

In addition to grass-root defections by activists like Dooley, tea party leadership has split over Trumps presidential bid. Some conservative activists met this week to try to stop him, while others have joined his campaign.

Meanwhile, major financial backers, including groups funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, have been sidelined from publicly backing GOP primary candidates, partly out of fear they might alienate their divided base.

The soured relationship should come as no surprise. The tea party was always somewhat of a marriage of convenience between Washingtons free-market powerhouses and frustrated ordinary Americans who showed up at rallies with their tri-cornered hats and Dont Tread on Me flags.

Fighting President Obama provided an easy alliance that Republicans at first leveraged to their advantage. But it also was a relationship built on what now looks like a rickety foundation less about think-tank-driven policies and more about voter outrage against perceived elitism.

From an ideological standpoint, the tea partys natural candidate should be Cruz, the Texas senator who was swept into office in the tea party revolt and wears his unpopularity in Washington as an outsider badge of honor.

But in Trumps long shadow, Cruz and rival Sen. Marco Rubio, before he left the campaign, suddenly looked to many rank-and-file activists as part of the problem.

I dont see Ted Cruz being a job creator,Dooley said.

Trumps positions against free trade and his reluctance to slash entitlement spending have led policy purists to call Trump a RINO Republican in Name Only.

David McIntosh, the president of the free-market Club for Growth, which is running anti-Trump TV ads in early voting states, noted that the businessman often portrays himself as outside of the GOP establishment.

Trump is a huge wake up to the senior Republican leadership of the party, McIntosh said, adding that the GOP should do more to embrace conservatives if it wants to prevent further tea party defections to Trumps campaign.

We have to make the tea party a part of the Republican coalition, he said. We cant take them for granted."

But at Trump rallies, a growing number of former tea party activists see him as their new hope, noting that Republicans have failed to repeal Obamacare, stop illegal immigration or scale back Obamas domestic spending programs.

Weve given the Republican Party a chance, said Amy Kremer, a founding tea party leader who now backs Trump. They would have never taken the House without the tea party. We gave them the Senate. What have they accomplished? They havent accomplished a damn thing.

The most high-profile splits are between original tea party leaders like Kremer and Jenny Beth Martin, who were part of that first tea party in Atlanta and who went on to help form Tea Party Patriots.

Martin, who now runs the group, is backing Cruz.For our organization, it hasnt just been about anger, its a set of principles,Martin said.

Also aligned with Cruz is Christine ODonnell, an early Sarah Palin-backed Senate candidate in 2010 perhaps best known for a TV ad declaring she was not a witch.

Palin, however, has endorsed Trump, as has Kremer, who previously helped elect Cruz but now is working at a pro-Trump super PAC with Jesse Benton, a former top aide to another tea party favorite, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Trumps national spokesman, Katrina Pierson, shows the elasticity of tea party loyalties with one of the most circuitous routes to her new boss. She was a Democrat who voted for Obama before becoming a Dallas tea party leader backing Cruz. Then she switched to Trump after the senator introduced her to the billionaire, according to reports.

The shifting alliances leave the impression the tea party is no longer a coalition joined by a common refrain Taxed Enough Already but silos of think-tank wonks, big-business conservatives and angry white voters who dont speak the same language.

Adam Brandon, president of FreedomWorks, a libertarian advocacy group formed by leaders of an earlier Koch-backed enterprise, said the split doesnt signal the end of the tea party as much as an evolution of it.

Regardless of who wins the presidency, he said, the rise of Trump and Cruz the two most outsider candidates of the primary cycle shows the tea partys influence on the GOP.

The one thing that comes out of this: The Republican Party is a smoking crater on the ground, said Brandon, who in his spare time is a Revolutionary War reenacter. The tea party has won. Now the bifurcation is: Do you want a burn-it-down with Donald Trump or do you want a battler like Ted Cruz.

Added Martin: It shows, this movement, seven years and three weeks old, is picking the presidential nominee on the right. Thats a big deal.

But FreedomWorks and other big conservative players Tea Party Express, the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity and Heritage Action are all sitting out the presidential primary.

Virtually none of them attended a meeting of conservatives last week in Washington trying to plot an anti-Trump effort. Some prefer to focus on congressional races or state issues. But they also risk losing influence among their members if they back the wrong candidate.

The high-dollar donors at the Koch organizations winter meeting preferred Rubio, while activists voting in a straw poll at FreedomWorks conference in Ohio this month overwhelmingly backed Cruz.

We just dont dive into a primary of this magnitude and try to dictate, said a person within the Koch network granted anonymity to discuss. It would harm the willingness of a lot of people to work with us. ... It would harm our long-term effectiveness.

Thats fine with Dooley, who said shes fed up with both the GOP establishment and big-dollar Washington donors telling people what to think.

They look down their noses on average people in the grass roots, she said. They think theyre the only ones who can define conservatism.

Twitter:@lisamascaro

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Donald Trump's campaign threatens to steal tea party thunder ...