Shirley: Tea Party Now More Important Than GOP

Grass-roots tea party activists are on the verge of triggering another "Reagan revolution," and have actually begun to overshadow the GOP in importance, according to conservative historian and author Craig Shirley.

"The incredible explosion of government and the concentration of power in Washington, the money and the lobbyists, should give alarm to any traditional conservative, whether its Barry Goldwater or Bill Buckley or Ronald Reagan," Shirley says during an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV's Kathleen Walter.

Shirley says eight years of governance by Republicans who veered away from conservative principles set the stage for Reagan's emergence. And during the George W. Bush years, Shirley says, the GOP repeated its mistake of transforming itself into "the second big-government party in America."

The public relations expert who worked in the Reagan campaign says he sees many parallels between the modern tea party movement and the forces that brought Reagan to power.

"That came about because conservatives were so dismayed at what had happened to the Republican Party," Shirley says of the Reagan years. "We have a natural outgrowth again with the tea party movement of populist, optimistic conservatives who have become very concerned about both political parties."

Shirley says that in many ways the tea party movement "has overtaken the Republican Party." As evidence, he cites the grass-roots organizations' ability to draw hundreds of thousands of rally-goers to the Nation's Capital.

"You have to ask yourself one question: Could the Republican Party turn those numbers out on the Mall here in Washington? The answer, I think everybody would agree, is no," Shirley concludes. "So right now, in many ways, the tea party movement is more formidable, and more important, than the Republican Party establishment is itself."

Shirley says the GOP should focus "on mending relations with the tea party, and making amends for the mistakes of the last eight years."

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