I'm getting a bit tense about the Tea Party thing.
Two things bother me:
First, I get really bugged out when I hear that state legislators and state attorneys general are trying to figure out ways to rebel against the authority of the Federal government. These folks are playing with fire. If they continue, it is possible that they will lead us to a very uncomfortable place down the line.
Second, the kind of coverage of the Tea Party phenomenon in the lefty blogosphere -- including diaries and front page stories of Daily Kos -- is worrisome to me. I suspect that we're being drawn to the most sensational aspects of the story and projecting our own fears onto it. The result is an amplification, perhaps a distortion, of what the movement is all about.
Regardless ...
I feel like I'm shaking my fist at the sky.
The powers that are at work here are beyond my ability to influence.
I don't like where this is going.
The thing is -- the White House and elected Democrats could change the game. They could provide alternatives for dispossessed Americans to believe in. They could work to alleviate the very real economic and social distress that is working to fuel the radicalism.
They aren't doing it.
It all really boils down to two things:
In order to promise real positive change for the American people, the White House and Congress would have to 1) stare down the big businesses that have an outsized influence on policy in Washington. And, 2) they would have to adopt monetary trade policies that protect American jobs.
I don't think they will do either.
What's left are some millions of people who have had rug after rug after rug pulled out from under them -- often by the Federal government -- during the last thirty years.
These people are listening for voices that promise them salvation.
Democrats in Washington aren't providing anything for them to listen to.