There are similar characteristics. This is true. The Sons of Liberty ran many of what they called offenders out on a rail. The problem is that the historical parallel is not accurate.

The protesters in the Tea Party are confused about who the real "enemy" is. The earlier
Tea Party protesters in Colonial times knew that the "enemy" was the corporation. Tea Partiers today don't get that to their detriment. Many defend the very monolith that will ensure that they will never be satisfied. Corporations are running the government rather than the other way around. The protective agencies of the government have been corrupted by the greed and big money of Wall Street (Summers, Geithner and yes, the loyalty of his earlier financial roots, Obama).

If the Tea Partiers would align themselves with the Left, they could achieve their goals easier because they would recognize that there are similar goals in common, 1. A responsive government that protects people instead of bilking them through corporative influence, 2. An anti-war strategy that would save the country over a trillion dollars,
3. A clean-up of finance reform in politics and an accurate method of avoiding corruption in the US voting process.

Instead, the Tea Partiers are a reactionary force that will sometimes resort to violence out of their frustration by having no realistic goals.   In this way, they might be closer to Al Quaeda with one difference. The latter has a definable goal however unrealistic it might be.