The flaw in your premise is the idea that somehow I consider the "tea party" people as an intellectual fountainhead of what I believe.

My philosophy is not driven by the people who are carrying signs at these protests any more than it's driven by Frum (or was driven by Buckley, come to that).

These protestors are, for the most part, operating on very limited issues, and few, if any, have integrated these issues into a larger set of concepts. It's why you can get a "conservative" who yells about government getting out of their lives, and then yells about their Social Security check being late.

To be fair, this doesn't make them stupid. That same person might be in charge of operating a complex piece of machinery at a forge, an electronics designer, or a skilled architect. It just means that politics just isn't one of the things they think about, and they accept things in that realm based on the simple surfaces.

I'm encouraged that these people are moving in the right direction, but have no illusions about why. Things could change quite easily if the winds changed. That's one of the flaws with "popular" political movements that have no real intellectual foundation. One day they're throwing palm leaves, the next day it's "crucify him." I wouldn't mind knowing how many "tea party" people voted for Obama back when he was the moderate Lightworker riding the unicorn. God knows no survey would get an honest answer.

I've been watching the news around the world. Frankly, if I have my preference, I'd rather see "tea party" people in the streets trying to back away from statism a bit than murderous union members trying to push statism.