The New York Times had an interesting 5-page article by David Barstow today titled, “Tea Party Movement Lights Fuse for Rebellion on Right.” It is worth the read to see how they assess you. Some of what they say is very good and accurate. Other parts are a little off.
These people are part of a significant undercurrent within the Tea Party movement that has less in common with the Republican Party than with the Patriot movement, a brand of politics historically associated with libertarians, militia groups, anti-immigration advocates and those who argue for the abolition of the Federal Reserve.
The Tea Party movement defies easy definition, largely because there is no single Tea Party.
At the grass-roots level, it consists of hundreds of autonomous Tea Party groups, widely varying in size and priorities, each influenced by the peculiarities of local history.
I haven’t yet read the linked article, but I will.
IMO it’s really very very simple: humans, at least the ones who are not pathological, have an innate sense of justice. We understand the need for, and the benefits of, joint action to achieve needs, and we understand the need to submit to some joint authority in order to achieve that.
When this sense of justice is publicly violated, we rise up and say “hold on a minute”. But each of us grasps the elephant of government from a different perspective, and decries one particular aspect of its actions. Some are most upset about government-perpetrated violence against citizens, others about being robbed to bail out Wall Street, still others are more aware of the outright robbery that is the basic tenet of central banking.
The economic crisis has brought the government actors out from the shadows and forced them to take actions in public that they’ve actually been quietly taking behind the scenes for decades. The shock of seeing these take place publicly awakens some sizable minority of the citizens, who bring their differing perspectives and start to coalesce into a movement.
The reality is, we’re all upset about the same thing: our sense of justice has been violated, and we are angry about it. All the government has to do is stop robbing us, prosecute Wall Street criminals, repeal the Patriot Act, stop debasing the currency, and most of us will go home. The problem is, they are incapable of doing those things, because they are mad with power.
Long live the movement.
Patrick Henry, at the Virginia Ratification Debates:
“Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessing — give us that precious jewel, and you may take every thing else! But I am fearful I have lived long enough to become an old-fashioned fellow. Perhaps an invincible attachment to the dearest rights of man may, in these refined, enlightened days, be deemed old-fashioned; if so, I am contented to be so. I say, the time has been when every pulse of my heart beat for American liberty, and which, I believe, had a counterpart in the breast of every true American; but suspicions have gone forth — suspicions of my integrity — publicly reported that my professions are not real. Twenty-three years ago was I supposed a traitor to my country? I was then said to be the bane of sedition, because I supported the rights of my country. I may be thought suspicious when I say our privileges and rights are in danger. But, sir, a number of the people of this country are weak enough to think these things are too true.
But, sir, suspicion is a virtue as long as its object is the preservation of the public good, and as long as it stays within proper bounds: should it fall on me, I am contented: conscious rectitude is a powerful consolation. I trust there are many who think my professions for the public good to be real. Let your suspicion look to both sides. There are many on the other side, who possibly may have been persuaded to the necessity of these measures, which I conceive to be dangerous to your liberty. Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.”