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From the piece:

"My hypothesis is that what all the events precipitating the Tea Party movement share is that they demonstrated, emphatically and unconditionally, the depths of the absolute dependence of us all on government action, and in so doing they undermined the deeply held fiction of individual autonomy and self-sufficiency that are intrinsic parts of Americans’ collective self-understanding."

What I am convinced that the Tea Party Movement has done is tap into the anger that seems to predominate in our culture. We are in a time when people are angry over the economy, over wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have lasted longer than WWI and WWII combined, over the spiraling change that seems to threaten their world at every turn, and over the fact that everything on which they thought they depended including the idea that the church would always be there in the form it was for granddad is part of the fabric of society. Jobs that were once the mainstays of our economy have been exported--manufacturing, metals, and textiles. The Tea Party seems to be a pressure valve that is giving people a place to "pop off."

My father-in-law is running for County Judge here. I've noticed that quite a few of his "fans" on Facebook are active Tea Partiers. Because of his Tea Party support, he was interviewed by the local newspaper reporter who covers the local races - the reporter tried to get my father-in-law to describe himself as a Tea Party Democrat.

He wouldn't do it because he really shares very little in common with the Tea Party crowd. The County Judge is basically a full-time CEO of sorts of the county (not a traditional judge) who has a spot on the 5-member Commissioners court. His campaign has emphasized "responsible government" and "open government." The incumbent has been less than transparent and involved in bad business deals for the county (not fiscally responsible). So, he's trying to ride the anti-incumbent wave that clearly exists in this area. And those themes of transparency and fiscal responsibility do seem to resonate with both Democrats and Tea Partiers at the local level.

Not sure how far that will take him though. It's a tight rope to walk. On the one hand you want all the votes you can get - including the Tea Party vote. On the other hand, you definitely don't want to get tapped as a Tea Partier.

What the Tea Party appears to be doing, across the country, is helping a lot of candidates in Republican primaries defeat incumbents or moderate Republicans. Most polls are showing that, when this happens, it usually benefits whoever the Democrat candidate is on the other side of the race.

I'm wondering if the anti-incumbent mood has had an effect in the governor's race in Texas. The Democrat, Bill White, has pushed fiscal responsibility and has pointed out that Perry misses an inordinate number of days on the job, as well as his spending on things related to his own personal office. He's slowly chipped away at Perry's lead in the polls, appears to be leading among independent voters, and has, within the last week, moved into a tie in the polls, unheard of in heavily Republican, conservative Texas.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?secti ... id=7514195