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Conservatives in disguise
Tea partiers deliver a mixed message: They call themselves "true conservatives," but their symbolism is revolutionary.
They talk about sanctity of private property but take the name of a lawless act that dumped private property worth a great deal of money into the Boston Harbor.
Tea party leaders swear by constitutional principles, even as they paint our constitutionally elected administration as a hostile "regime," and quote Thomas Jefferson about the good effects of periodic revolutions. The Nevada tea party Senate candidate, Sharron Angle, hints darkly about armed putsches–what she calls "Second Amendment remedies."
For his part, Glenn Beck, the Fox News patron of the tea parties, preaches the conservative principles of religion and hard money, while casting himself as a second Thomas Paine, the fiery agitator of the American Revolution. Beck ignores details–like the fact that Paine was a radical egalitarian and an outspoken enemy of religion.
But such is the dilemma of U.S. politics today, when conservatives have taken the political stage as fire-breathing revolutionaries.