The Tea Party has taken heavy fire lately: blamed by the MSM for our recent market volatility and S&P credit downgrade, derogated as “hostage-takers” and “terrorists” by prominent Democrats, while leading Tea Party candidates have been the subject of scary magazine articles and intentionally hideous cover photos. (All part of the rough-and-tumble of American politics, of course; the Right does the same thing too.)
Yes, I’ll admit many of our new Tea Party pols are what could fairly be called zealots — or even, in a stretch, “extremists”, if you like (though clearly of the sort that carries the Barry Goldwater seal of approval). Nevertheless, I’m glad they’re out there. For all that their tactical choices may be unschooled and unsubtle, the principles they defend so ardently are those that have been the key to America’s greatness in the past, and are necessary for the preservation of what rump-greatness America has left. There’s no doubt that the Tea Party is carrying a lot more sail than ballast — but zoom out a little, and the Tea Party is the ballast desperately needed to right a badly listing ship that has been sporting, for a very long time now, far too much government sail.
As I was thinking these thoughts I ran across a cartoon that seemed apt enough to include here (also with a nautical metaphor), by Chuck Asay:
Long ago, Winston Churchill said more or less the same thing:
Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.