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Reader question: Please explain “albatross” in this sentence: Certainly, conservatives affiliated with the tea-party movement have vehemently attacked the bank bail-outs during the financial crisis, and the belief that the bail-outs were necessary to contain the financial crisis has become something of an albatross for Republican office-seekers (We are the 99%, Economist.com, October 14, 2011). My comments: This is politics, American style. And American politics being American politics, this is rather difficult to explain, but let’s see. First, American politics. The tea-party movement is a Republican movement. It is not a movement shared, however, by all members of the Republic party but the conservatives. Foreigners may argue that all republicans are conservative and I tend to agree. But America being the way it is, everything there is more diverse and complex than foreigners think it is. Therefore, some Republicans are still more conservative than others. And so let’s, for simplification, say that the tea-party movement members are extreme conservative Republicans. They are a powerful group – there are signs showing the tea party is waning but for the moment it is still a powerful group. They are opposed to bank bail-outs during the financial crisis, believing that government bail-outs rewarded the same people who brought about the crisis in the first place (and would encourage them to do the same in future). However, other republicans, who are generally richer Americans who believe in a laissez faire economy with as little governmental intervention as possible, disagree. They thought bailing out the bad banks were necessary. And therefore, if and when they want to run for office, they face sharp criticism from their fellow Republicans from the tea-party movement. | 
