With Sarah Palin annointing Republican candidates around the nation with no more vetting than she got before being propelled into the national dialogue even stalwarts in the conservative movement have much to fear.
I saw this analogy recently about the difference between spiders and starfish which attempts to explain the Tea Party phenomenon. A simpler way to describe the Tea Party would simply be to call it a mob. Many of the Founding Fathers were the insiders of their day and a great many of them were aghast at the French Revolution and its mob actions. As the starfish analogy explains there is no “head” in a starfish nor is there one in a mob, its leadership is found in voices riding the wave until they crest and are replaced by some new megaphone wielding opportunist.
Sometimes the mob can be more sympathetic as it was recently in Iran during the Green Revolution. Sometimes, usually, it can turn ugly.
One fortunate thing about the current Tea Party revolution is that it is taking place in a youtube nation where every crack pot (liberal, conservative, Scientologist) can be exposed coast to coast within minutes. The Obama mania which I still recall with fondness was much the same although with a lot more kumbuyah and a lot less insanity. Anyone want to go to Washington DC?
Oh and here’s another analogy that seems to describe the Tea Parties.
