The Revolt of the Bourgeois tea party

September 3, 2010 11:39


Tea partiers are mad as heck, and they’re letting the world know — politely. The tea party’s detractors want to paint it as radical, when at bottom it represents the self-reliant, industrious heart of American life.

Rich Lowry at National Review Online

EXCERPTS:

‘This was the revolt of the bourgeois, of the responsible, of the orderly, of people profoundly at peace with the traditional mores of American society.’

‘A New York Times survey earlier this year occasioned shock when it found that “Tea Party supporters are wealthier and more well-educated than the general public, and are no more or less afraid of falling into a lower socioeconomic class.” We’re so accustomed to the notion of a revolt of the dispossessed that a revolt of the possessed (in the non-demonic sense, of course) strikes us as a strange offense against the nature of things. But it’s threatening to wash away the Democratic congressional majorities in a historic wipeout.’

‘To be sure, the tea partiers are fiercely anti-establishment, and that produces political candidates who are exotic and unexpected. Then there’s Beck himself. As he’d probably be the first to admit, he’s an unlikely leader for the disaffected bourgeois. He’s emotionally extravagant and conspiracy-minded, an intellectual enthusiast and rollicking showman.’

FULL STORY



Help Make A Difference By Sharing These Articles On Facebook, Twitter And Elsewhere: