Party like it's 1773

Today's Tea Party Isn't Quite Like 1773's : NPR:

There was a time when the words "Tea Party" conjured up Revolutionary soldiers, muskets in hand, forming a phalanx of resistance to oppression. Now the phrase brings to mind former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a Glenn Beck rally and Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell on the campaign trail.

While I would entreat the writer to run a google search for "Boston Tea Party", I think the allusion is a decent one. The current Tea Party movement bears little resemblance to the revolutionary movement that led to the founding of the United States, the question, I think, is should it?

The revolution led by our founders was not about small government or a balanced budget (nor was it in any way shape or form about social conservatism), it was about the right to self-government, something that some in todays tea party seem to overlook in their attempts to appear patriotic.

The allusions that todays movement draws to our past are not entirely inappropriate (as historian Jack Rakove mentions in the article), but the misappropriation of American history for political gain is nothing new. None of this implies that the wider Tea Party movement lacks validity, it is most certainly a voice that grows louder with each passing primary election, yet, as a student of history, I am forced to wonder just how much many of it's participants actually know about the Revolutionary War.

If they are as poorly educated in American history as the rest of the country, then my guess would be that they are more attached to the mythology of our founding than they are aware of the facts of it.