Their discontent has been packaged and sold to some very high bidders. "Judge the Tea Party purely on the grounds of effectiveness," EJ Dionne writes, "and you have to admire how a very small group has shaken American political life and seized the microphone offered by the media, including the so-called liberal media."
But it's equally important to recognize that the Tea Party constitutes a sliver of opinion on the extreme end of politics receiving attention out of all proportion with its numbers.
Yes, there is a lot of discontent in America. But that discontent is better represented by the moderate voters who expressed quiet disillusionment to President Obama at the CNBC town hall meeting on Monday than by Tea Party ideologues who proclaim the unconstitutionality of the New Deal and everything since.
The Tea Party drowns out such voices because it has money ... and has used modest numbers strategically in small states to magnify its impact.
Let's get some perspective here. Obama found warmth, approval, and intelligent questions at the CNBC meeting earlier this week.
The audience included college students and union leaders, small business owners and retirees in a meeting of Wall Street, Main Street and Washington.
They quizzed him on a variety of issues, with one woman imploring him to give her more reasons to defend his record thus far and a hedge fund manager pressing him on why he was treating Wall Street like a political pinata.
But the approach from questioners was cordial and at times admiring, even though he faces approval ratings in the low 40s and his Democratic Party in danger of losing control of Congress following the November elections.
He in fact challenged his critics, particularly those in the Tea Party, to do more than offer barbs and historically failed policies and instead propose solutions.
"Identify specifically what you would do," he said. "It's not enough to say get control of spending. I think it's important for you to say, 'I'm willing to cut veterans' benefits or I'm willing to cut Medicare or Social Security benefits or I'm willing to see these taxes go up. What you can't do is say ... we're going to control government spending, we're going to propose $4 trillion of additional tax cuts and magically these things are going to work."
This was very different, and considerably more substantive, than a tea party rally. But what we're paying attention to is the shouters, not the realities. EJ Dionne reminds us that a very few people (the people who can afford to rent costumes, rally and complain) are making more noise and getting more attention than the cross section of Americans who have the real complaints.
For weeks now, our national political conversation has been driven by 86,441 voters and a margin of 5,548 votes. A bit of perspective: When John McCain lost in the 2008 presidential race, he received 59.9 million votes.
If you add up actual tea party activists -- those who actually turn up at rallies -- they add up to (ta-da!) 3% of all Americans. Which is why we're reducing them to lower case again. They're snake handlers, screamers and fainters. They're O'Donnells and Angles. When you add in the fact that a major TV network is among their backers, it's astonishing they haven't been more influential. The tea party can have its capital letter back if its members talk sense and act like intelligent political representatives of a significant group of Americans.
The discontent we should be paying closer attention to in America is found elsewhere.
...There is a lot of discontent in America. But that discontent is better represented by the moderate voters who expressed quiet disillusionment to President Obama at the CNBC town hall meeting on Monday than by Tea Party ideologues who proclaim the unconstitutionality of the New Deal and everything since.
The parties that should be responding are the Republicans who lost their way somewhere along the trail, and progressives who are, sadly and inexcusably, busy sulking.
Sulking is not an alternative to organizing, and weary resignation is the first step toward capitulation. The Tea Party may be pulling a fast one on the country and the media. But if it has more audacity than everyone else, it will, I am sorry to say, deserve to get away with it.
Audacity? Just to be clear, "audacity" covers a lot of territory from courage to insolence. Even during the first days of the tea party it was their insolence, not their courage, that caught our attention.
