The Tea Party is based on a misreading of history. If it wants to pattern itself after the
Boston Tea Party, it is not consistent with the reaction of one nation against another.
England had a corporate entity known as the East India Tea Company that dominated
the commerce in the Colonies. Small tea merchants from the Colonies were put out of
work by the East India Tea Company (corporation) which had the support of King George.

The manufactured "Tea Party" in the US is not dominated by any foreign nation and the people who are a part of it are working and doing business under the protection of the laws of the Federal Government. Tea Partiers are not exactly downtrodden poor but kind of upper middle class. They are being financed by the likes of the Koch Brothers who are not exactly representative of the working-class populace. Nor is Dick Armey.

When they say they want "their" country back, what they mean is a return to a time when
blacks were being lynched in the South, Religion dominated the so-called morals of the public, no one questioned authority but obeyed robotically, and children were subjected
to daily child abuse if they didn't tow the line. The country of the Thirties through the Fifties was not served very well by this authoritarianism and it's well to remember that Roosevelt suffered at the hands of wealthy businessmen, some who plotted to assassinate
him. Fortunately he had the courage to stand up to them and saved many working-class jobs as a result.

Much of what "country" they want back is mythological. It was never a time that lacked turbulence, labor disputes, and a unilateral agreement on how the country should be won. Many of the Tea Partiers remember the Second World War and how it appeared that the country was more unified than it actually was. There was a lot of jingoism and flag waving that replaced genuine patriotism. When the war ended, many of these so-called conservatives looked around for another enemy to fight in an attempt to unify the country in a common ideology. In the Fifties they found Communism which then turned that time into a hysteria where innocent people went to jail through the purging of the drunken senator from Wisconsin. When he was finally removed, the public went into a kind of reaction and diversity in ideas. Many realized that they had been hoodwinked by a false "patriotism". They were left with confusion and anger which has carried through to this day.

Tea Partiers should realize that "you can't go home, again" which is to them the mythology of a "Leave It To Beaver" time that was seemingly free from strife and disputing discourse. They are angry because the US got its ass handed to it in Vietnam and there is a suspicion that the same thing is happening today in Iraq and AfPak.

Tea Partiers are suffering from a free-floating anger and find it difficult to target their anger to not much more than a Black President. The mythology of the Tea Party has nowhere to go in reality. Their claim of victimhood runs a lot deeper historically then
just their fear of a repressive government. Corporations have, however, found a way to channel this fear politically to protect their economic interests.

The Tea Party is hysterical and incapable of logical solutions to pressing issues such as unemployment which will not be cured by tax cuts. They can't find the same honest reverence for the "troops" as they once felt they had in WWII. Some brandish their weapons in an expression of impotent rage which very much looks like terrorism.