The New Patriotism—Huh?

The velocity with which books can be—dare I use the verb “written?”—published these days is astonishing. Barely has a disaster decimated an unfortunate number of humans and their habitat, a scandal titillated millions, or a suspected-pederast superstar passes to his greater, when out pops a, uh, tome.

Now I was apparently mistaken in thinking that the tea-party movement is a very recent phenomenon, as I found out while perusing A New American Tea Party: The Counterrevolution Against Bailouts, Handouts, Reckless Spending, and More Taxes (Wiley) by John O’Hara, “a young rising star in the center-right movement” and self-named counterrevolutionary.

If one can stomach the exercise one would do well not to be dismissive of this new crusade. Michelle Malkin (Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild), not one noted known for judicious commentary and analysis, writes in the foreword:

In this passionate and illuminating book O’Hara chronicles the roots, rise, and future of the New American Tea Party movement… O’Hara dispels the leftwing myths of a top-down ‘angry mob;’ eschews the vulgar and derogatory descriptions of the Tea Party protesters used by everyone from cable TV smear merchants to former President Bill Clinton and current President Barack Obama; beats back attacks on those peaceful ordinary citizens as “racists” and “terrorists”; and shows how the modern day Tea Party patriots embody the founding spirit and principles of our great nation…[This] book is a living history and a call to arms. Now is the time for all good taxpayers to turn the tables on their free-lunching countrymen and enablers in Washington.

You, no doubt, want to know what stirred up those peaceful, ordinary citizens (those gun-toting patriots with the signs likening the President to Hitler) referencing the American Revolution. O’Hara explains:

Beginning with the bailouts of the Bush Administration, Americans awoke day in and day out to headlines chronicling the radical transformation of our nation’s political, legal, and economic structures imposed for “the common good.” By February 2009, a rightfully skeptical public rose up in cities and towns across the country to tell their elected officials loud and clear to support not undermine the free-market economy that has made the US the most powerful and prosperous nation in human history.

Oh boy! —Robert Birnbaum, Feb. 4, 2010

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Yes, the Tea Party movement is full of wackos (birthers, people who think killing abortion doctors is fair game, racists). So is the far-left (9/11 conspiracy theorists, violent environmentalists, self-hating apologists).

When it comes down to the core differences, Tea Party types believe in very limited government. Leftists think government should provide a cradle-to-grave entitlement state. Those two ideologies will never, ever meet.

Just do yourself a favor: If you want to be considered an objective media-type, point out the fact that there are morons on both sides. The sarcasm that pervades your article is beneath a real journalist.

Thanks.
—Matt Dycus, Feb. 5, 2010, at 4:10 AM

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About Our Man in Boston

When Robert Birnbaum was an adolescent, his mother took him to the Chicago Public Library every week, and he would leave with armloads of books. Ever since he has been an avid reader—except in the cultural sinkhole era of the ’70s (think Saturday Night Fever).

Illustration by Witold Ridel

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Friday, July 30, 2010