Tea Party Founder: It's Over

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

It never began.

This. It was just the conservative movement flexing its muscles under a different name.

Yep. I was back in school (getting my 2nd degree) when the Tea Party got started. I attended one meeting on campus and it was full of exactly the stuff he complains about in the article: the racism, the pro-Republican hypocrisy, the social conservative bigotry, the anti-science echoes of the Know-Nothings; it was all there right from the start.

My local Tea Party is a branch of AIPAC; they want MORE government spending for foreign aid, but less for people who actually need it.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

A lot of Tea Partiers today would say they can't stand libertarians... it really shows (and I've said this for a while) that the movement now isn't what it started out to be.

The Santorums, Gary Bauers, Alan Keyes, Bachmanns, Hanittys and Trumps of the world took it over from the libertarians (or better yet, the Ron Paul Republicans) who started it.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

A lot of Tea Partiers today would say they can't stand libertarians... it really shows (and I've said this for a while) that the movement now isn't what it started out to be.

The Santorums, Gary Bauers, Alan Keyes, Bachmanns, Hanittys and Trumps of the world took it over from the libertarians (or better yet, the Ron Paul Republicans) who started it.

Was Alan Keyes relevant when the Tea Party was getting going?

He was arrested at Notre Dame in the first weeks of the Obama Presidency and spoke at a few rallies.