I’m just getting caught up on Metafilter after having dinner at the Brewery with my family, and I’m finding this thread on Tea Party progenitor Keli Carender to be particularly interesting. Maybe it’s the beer, but I’m finding myself completely intrigued by this criminally uninformed young woman and the movement she’s credited with birthing. (Sorry about the pun, but I couldn’t help myself.)
One of my favorite comments in the Metafilter thread comes from someone calling himself Astro Zombie, who has the following to say:
The Times has been looking pretty deep into the Tea Party. Based on what they’re finding, I think a violent clash with authorities is inevitable, and will explode into national violence. The rhetoric of violent revolution which has become common, is troubling, and isn’t meant as metaphor or in jest.
Frank Rich has a few things to say too: The distinction between the Tea Party movement and the official G.O.P. is real, and we ignore it at our peril.
There are other, perhaps, more insightful comments in the thread, but I chose to single this one out because, up until reading it, it, for some reason, hadn’t crossed my mind that a skirmish might transpire between tea baggers and authorities. The more I think about it now, though, the more likely it seems. And I don’t mean to come across as alarmist. I just mean that, with the size of the tea party movement growing, and the popularity of their anti-government message spreading, it’s probably just a matter of time before, at one of their events, someone crosses the line and sets into motion a series of regrettable actions. (It certainly happened with the hippies.) And I’m not even thinking that it would necessarily be the fault of the tea baggers. It’s just that when everyone is keyed-up, and the environment is super-charged, bad things are likely to happen. (See Kent State.)
At any rate, this comment gets me wondering, if, God forbid, something terrible does happen, how people would likely respond. Would it lead, as Astro Zombie suggests, to an explosion of national violence? I’m not so sure. I do, however, think it’s worth considering.