There is a better word to call the TEA Party movement than just "populist"
And that word phrase is "populist constitutionalism".
....Take Nevada and Utah as instances. The states border each other. Yet one state endorses legalized gambling, prostitution, and easy access to liquor. Right next door, teetotaling Utah frowns on all of these "immoral" practices.
That's the way the Founding Fathers wanted America to be. They knew that different people have different needs and values. They realized that they should be free to express those values legislatively on the state and community levels. If an American finds Nevada's laws too promiscuous (or Utah's laws too restrictive), the citizen can either work to change the laws of the particular state...or move across state lines.
There are and will continue to be arguments and dissention within the Tea Party. (The media is already noting this and eating it up.) But Americans are famous for contention and debate. No populist movement (unless it is focused on a single issue, like prohibition) will be in agreement on every issue. Disputation and disagreement in the Tea Party is a sign of health and enthusiasm, not a portent of dissolution.
Populist constitutionalism is the surest and clearest path to saving our republic. Thank God (and I mean that literally) for that dedicated woman who asked me if she had brought enough copies of the Constitution to the Tea Party gathering. I will close by answering her as I should have when we were standing at that table: "As far as the Constitution goes, you can never have enough copies...and we should never stop learning as much as we can about the greatest political document ever written."
Here in NH, there has been a concerted effort by some politicos (Looking to make points? Coattails?), journalists (many whom, at the national levels, have proven themselves not to be friends of the movement - looking for dirt?) and the committed Lefties (infiltration? looking for dirt? (oh wait, already used that), looking to commit subversion?) to "look for the leaders".
There aren't any. Oh, there is the NH TEA Party Coalition in this state which has many but not all interested groups and individuals involved with it. However, in many of the states or other locations, it is simply a band of folks that have decided to group together around not a single issue...
...but a single document - the Constitution.
In this, they need no leader. Being intelligent, they can read - both the actual document as well as the writings of those that wrote it. They compare that body of knowledge to their knowledge of how our current crop of chuckleheaded politicians, both Democrat AND Republican, have strayed from that intent and have decided "If not me, then who?"
Now, many folks on the left (e.g., Kathy Sullivan, former NH Democrat Chair) both hold it up for their purposes but also denigrates those who still hold to the original intent and words of that document (IMHO, Progressives seem to want to want to protect that document in the most secure vault ever - but then never printing it out again as it just gets in their way).
However, for those who DO hold to the original intent, and having found like minded folks, they have formed packs (as opposed to the "herds" that Lefties commonly frame in thinking we blindly follow the likes of Rush and Beck) and have decided to hunt down and politically and culturally defeat those Progressive or Statist type politicians that have brought this country to the brink of ruin.
No leader is needed - no Ross Perot, no single issue, no third party either. Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, has described this as the Third Great Awakening.
The alarm clock has rung - the people are waking up. And oh, are they ticked!
Oh, speaking of the NH TEA Party Coalition (and others around the state):
