Tea Party

[Redalgo]

This is not about fiscal conservatism. My suspicion is the Tea Party movement is well-intentioned... but also a latent, authoritarian threat concealed in the cloak of American traditions. Many people in the movement are conservative hardliners - not because of a coherent set of ideas - but because of an unwavering trust in whatever their admired leaders and role models tell them to think. Pious dogmatism, compartmentalized thinking, fear, prejudice, and a propensity to conform makes many of them vulnerable to exploitation by anyone in politics who is willing to tell them what they want to hear to get more power. What worries me most is that I do not believe the activists realize this.