Tea Party Fundys
- Republican Tea Party Contract
The Democratic Party produces an agenda for the "Tea Party Caucus" based on statements from actual Tea Partiers.
The Same Plot?
The idea of The Narrative that has many well-off and well-educated Muslims adopting radical fundamentalism got me to thinking if something similar may explain how people can support something like the Tea Party, which to me is basically a movement with the vision of America as a sort of "Corporate State".
I also got to thinking about the elements that I see of religious fundamentalism, and how that might extend to the free-market fundamentalism that might be the philosophical base of the Tea Party.
For one, religious fundamentalism springs out of a resistance to change. Be it scientific discovery, or social advances. In the case of the Tea Party, it may be combination of a member of a conservative "outgroup" being elected President, and the desire of President Obama to make corporations accountable.
Second, fundamentalist religions tend to simplify things into an "us versus them". The Tea Partiers have this idea; you're either a "Real American" or a "Socialist". Fundamentalists have the idea of the faithful and the infidel. It's likely a necessity as both religious fundamentalists and the Tea Party draw much of their support from the less educated.
The final common theme is that both actually, in their efforts to defend something; be it a faith or an idea, they reject it. Religious fundamentalists tend to remove the ideas of compassion and dignity of all that their faith espouses, and the Tea Party's vision of a Corporate State is perhaps closer to the fascism that they accuse their opponents of.