geauxtohell
Choose your weapon.
I see the Tea party as the common man who has just now found his voice after many years of fat, lazy silence. Right now they are clownish and disorganized in their new reincarnation and need polish and direction but that IS the voice of the common man you are hearing, make no mistake about it. Later it will morph into what it will eventually be, for good or ill but don't be too quick to laugh, my friends. Far smaller factions of far less experienced members have changed the world.
I also see the 'fat, lazy' as just about all of us that have been cruising along for several generations letting the Government run itself while we reaped the benefits. But something has gone terribly wrong there in the last few decades, hasn't it? And it's not just Democrats, and it's not just Republicans and it's not just corporations and it's not just a shaky infrastructure, is it? It's all of us that have stood by while others that did not have our country's best interest at heart have been given full head to do as they wish, politicians from both parties that have passed laws without looking down the road at the possible complications and ramifications or doing so. And why? BECAUSE WE WEREN'T WATCHING.
Well, now a small faction of people that remember when this country was great have gotten a platform and a voice. That is always scary to the leaches because they don't want to let go of their fat host. But the host has been drained almost dry and they'll fall off while the rest of us try to revive it.
That bunch of guys that dumped all the Tetley in the Boston Harbor were a disorganized bunch of rabble too. Never judge anything by it's first reincarnation. And never underestimate the common man when you stir him up. After all, the Boston Tea Partiers were just pissed off over a breakfast beverage.
I see the Tea Party as an attempt by GOP voters outside of the beltway to rebrand themselves after an abysmal 8 years of George W. Bush, which has totally trashed the GOP brand name.
As much as everyone says "it's all about taxes", the same old wedge issues are being propelled.
As such, it has reluctantly been embraced by the powers that be in the GOP.
But, hey, I am glad you guys rediscovered your sense of fiscal conservatism!