Another view of the "Tea Party"

After reading Elizabeth Sanders's & Tom Friedman's description of the "Tea Party" -- which, to be clear, I think is easily and appropriately criticizable on more than a few fronts (as are the often unhinged folks who flocked to Cindy Sheehan events and Michael Moore films), including several of the ones that Friedman lists -- I was reminded of this book (which I have not read, but which has a catchy title):  "That's No Angry Mob, That's My Mom: Team Obama's Assault on Tea-Party, Talk-Radio Americans."

It is clear to me that there is certainly some inconsistency in the Tea Partiers' critique.  (It's hard to simultaneously defend Medicare but rail against government involvement in the health-care system; it's foolish to see cutting "foreign aid" as the answer to our country's financial woes; it is wrong to imagine that immigrants are the cause of our financial or cultural challenges, etc.)  It is also clear to me that neither this inconsistency, nor the snobbery and disdain that animates many of the Partiers' critics, insulates the new health-insurance-funding regime -- or our taxing-and-spending regime more generally -- from criticism. 

I think it is worth remembering the observation made by Ainsley Hayes, during the second season of "The West Wing", made in response to a typically self-important anti-gun speech by the Rob Lowe character, which concluded with his pronouncement that he didn't like guns.  She said no, "you don't like people who do like guns. You don't like the people."