Movement of the Moment Looks to Long-Ago Texts

[Kevin_Kennedy]

The Tea Party is a thoroughly modern movement, organizing on Twitter and Facebook to become the most dynamic force of the midterm elections.

But when it comes to ideology, it has reached back to dusty bookshelves for long-dormant ideas.

It has resurrected once-obscure texts by dead writers — in some cases elevating them to best-seller status — to form a kind of Tea Party canon. Recommended by Tea Party icons like Ron Paul and Glenn Beck, the texts are being quoted everywhere from protest signs to Republican Party platforms.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/us/politics/02teaparty.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&emc=eta1

I'll give them Hayek, since Beck did a show on The Road to Serfdom. However, I'd be interested to know the exact percentage of Tea Partiers reading Basiat or Mises, because I'm guessing it's not much, and is probably exclusive to the libertarian-wing of the Tea Party.