A Matter of Attitude
Lee Harris has a very interesting essay, “The Tea Party vs. the Intellectual,” in the June-July 2010 issue of the Hoover Institution’s Policy Review. He writes that the Tea Party is a movement of attitude rather than one of ideas. He puts it like this:
“It is all about attitude, like the attitude expressed by the popular poster seen at all Tea Party rallies. Over the head of a hissing rattlesnake threatening to strike is inscribed the defiant slogan so popular among our revolutionary ancestors: “Don’t tread on me!””
Harris asks how do you debate an attitude, writing:
“It is little wonder that so many sober intellectuals find it difficult to take the Tea Party seriously, except to see it as a threat to the future of American politics. But anti-Tea Party intellectuals who are liberal have a luxury that their conservative brethren don’t have. Liberals can attack and deride the Tea Party without fear of alienating their traditional allies among ordinary voters. Indeed, their mockery of the Tea Party makes good sense to them politically. It is throwing red meat to their base. But conservative intellectuals are in a wholly different position.
“As the Tea Party gains in momentum, conservative intellectuals are faced with a dilemma: to join the party or denounce it. If they join, they risk losing their status as respectable public intellectuals. If they denounce the party, they risk losing influence over the traditional Republican base.”
Harris makes another important point when he writes, “The nature of American politics has been revolutionize by the Tea Party’s ability to politicize people who were once apolitical.”
It’s a great flag, isn’t it?
HT Norm Leahy at Tertium Quids.