Is the "tea party" movement out to destroy the American republic? It certainly looks like it from where I sit. They are actively sabotaging the federal government, making it as dysfunctional as possible, as if, like Germany's conservatives after World War I, they are so opposed to their country's democratic institutions that they will do anything to bring them down, even at the cost of ruining the country.
The thing about dysfunctional government is that it almost invariably gives way to something more functional but less democratic; Italy in 1922 comes to mind, as does Russia since 1999, when the anarchy of the Yeltsin years was replaced by the authoritarian nationalism of Vladimir Putin. Democracy and the rule of law are nice, but people need their roads maintained, their borders defended, and essential services delivered. If democracy can't do that, something else will be found that can.
The "tea partiers" may be so deeply deluded as to think that could never happen here, but they are wrong. "They cry 'no government!', rermarked `Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth Caliph, "but there must be a government, for good or ill." He was speaking of a movement called the Khawarij ("seceders") who challenged his authority and took the radical position that only the sinless may be Caliph, and even that a Muslim who sins is no longer a Muslim but a kafir ("unbeliever").
Now, our modern-day Khawarij, the "tea partiers", accuse Barack Obama of being, of all things, a Muslim. If they are allowed their way, I think they would go to any lengths to stop him governing. But as the old Caliph pointed out, someone must govern; if not the duly elected President of the United States, then someone else, bound by neither oath of office nor constitutional check.
The "tea partiers" may come to regret their choices, as Germany's conservatives eventually did after July 20, 1944. We can only hope it does not come to that.