The Tea Party makes good TV. It has anger and costumes and members at its fringe who redefine the word "fringe". Unfortunately, all of the sound and fury distracts us from the core values that drive the movement. When you boil away all of the drama, it seems that Tea Party members believe that they are not receiving their legal representation from the federal government, making them victims of tyranny and entitling them to start a revolution for freedom patterned on our founders' revolution against the British. Unfortunately, the only way to believe this is if you are painfully misinformed about the Constitution and our nation's history. The sad truth is that none of what the Tea Party members face qualifies as tyranny and that what the Tea Party is actually protesting is American Democracy.
The American government, as structured by the Constitution, is a representative government. This means that citizens do not directly vote on legislation. Instead, every two years we go to the polls to vote for representatives who will then vote on our behalf. Once we elect a representative, they are free to act as they see fit. If voters feel that they are not being well served by their representative, they can protest the representative's actions and try to get them to change their policies. Failing that, citizens next course of action is to wait for the next election and try to vote the offending representative out of office.
Nowhere in the Constitution are representatives required to follow opinion polls and always vote in a accordance with what's most popular amongst their constituents. Ironically, Republicans were very clear on this issue when George W. Bush's poll numbers showed that around 70% of Americans disagreed with his policies and felt they were being poorly represented by him. At the time, they declared that the presidency was not a popularity contest and considered the President brave for ignoring public opinion and sticking to his guns.
Sadly, these days even the Republican mainstream seems to have forgotten the true nature of American democracy. In their new "Pledge to America", Republicans say that "In a self-governing society, the only bulwark against the power of the state is the consent of the governed, and regarding the policies of the current government, the governed do not consent." This statement is, in a word, false. In America, the primary bulwark against the power of the state is the right to vote. If you voted in a free and fair election, then you are being represented to the fullest extent required by the Constitution. No matter how strongly you disagree with your representatives, you are not the victim of tyranny and you have no claim to the right of revolution.
Much has been made of Jefferson's comment on revolution and " the blood of patriots". Unfortunately, no one mentions the most critical part of that statement, which is not what he said but when he said it. Jefferson wrote this in a letter in 1787, after the revolution but before the new Constitution was ratified and its key amendments written. In other words, he said it before our great American system of government existed. America's greatness comes from the system laid down in the Constitution, an elegant system which guarantees both individual freedom and the peaceful transfer of power. As long as America's politicians hold to that system and the people retain the right to vote, revolution can only be an attack on America herself.
When our founders said "taxation without representation is tyranny", they were saying that "the monarchy that controls my country is taking my money in taxes and providing nothing but brutal repression in return".
When Tea Party members say "taxation without representation is tyranny", they are saying that "my democratically elected government is enacting policies that I disagree with".
Clearly, there is no parity between these two statements. When you boil away the sound and fury, the Tea Party is a group of people who are angry that we had an election in 2008 and the other guys won. In other words, the Tea Party is a movement of people who are bitterly angry at American Democracy.
