Balkin on the Tea PartiesMike Rappaport

Jack's thoughtful essay contrasts with the mindless attacks on tea parties from most of the left.  Here is an excerpt:

Sixth, and finally, consider the possibility that the tea parties are not an event isolated from the resurgence of a viable liberal politics in America, but its mirror image. Folks on the left understand, or perhaps hope, that significant changes in American politics are afoot, that the Obama Presidency will prove to be transformative in ways that are not even now fully determined. Assume that this is even partially correct. If it is correct, do you seriously believe that there will be no counter mobilizations on the right?

Note that this is not simply an argument about the inevitability of political reactions to Obama and the Democratic majority. Times of significant political change produce movements-- or attempts at movements-- on all parts of the political spectrum simultaneously. Some are more powerful than others, and may come to dominate the public's imagination for a time. But the others are present as well and may have important long term effects. (For example, left wing agitation in the 1960s was matched by right wing agitation. The latter was weaker in the 1960s but eventually became stronger.) The dissatisfaction and the desire for change that we saw on the left in the past several years is matched by a dissatisfaction and a desire for change on the right as well. What all sides agree on is that a change must come. What they disagree about is what this change should be.

Comments

[athena]

In a resort town I live in, Cape May,NJ, there are about 4000 residents. It is off season and many people are in Florida. It was raining and 40 mile hour winds. 70 people showed up to the UNADVERTISED tea party.
Do the math.

[FGH]

The common theme was protesting what many see as the government’s overreaching in terms of taxation and spending, but also, and perhaps even more important and too little stressed—the erosion of values that have been at the core of American life since they were fought for and won during the American Revolution. Instead of the free market commanding the economic heights with its emphasis on consumer choice, competitive prices and profit-seeking, they see a shift to government control and industrial policy dictating the nation’s commerce. Instead of self-reliance, a traditional work ethic and personal accountability, the tea party protesters see a shift to rent seeking (the extraction of uncompensated value from others without making any contribution) and moral hazard (the prospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk).

Alexis de Toqueville, in his seminal “Democracy in America,” worried that democracy might lead to a tyranny of the majority—a tyranny of “all over all,” which might result when the people seek to use government to protect them in their mediocrity by restricting the freedom of any who might challenge or endanger them. This could lead to a kind of sterile suffocation of talents or ambitions, he feared, and the utter surrender of freedom in exchange for equality. “The nations of our day cannot prevent conditions of equality from spreading in their midst,” wrote de Toqueveille, “But it depends upon themselves whether equality is to lead to freedom or servitude, knowledge or barbarism, prosperity or wretchedness.”

One senses de Toqueville would sympathize with the tea parties.