Right-Wing Ideologies and Ideological Diversity in the Tea Party

ABSTRACT

This article extends prior research on right-wing ideology broadly and the ideology of the Tea Party specifically. Using data from 45 interviews with Tea Party activists and participant observation at Tea Party meetings, I map five distinct ideologies, used by subsets of the Tea Party Patriots membership: Christian Conservatism, Constitutionalism, Reformed Liberalism, Libertarianism, and Conspiracism.

KEYWORDS:

• Tea Party
• right-wing ideology
• conservative ideology
• right-wing social movements