GfS, Thank you for the clear statement of where you stand on many of the Tea Party issues that have been batted around in this thread. I find myself in agreement with most of what you said. What strikes me, though, is that while you share most of the goals of the Tea Party, you don't seem to be in agreement with their methodology.

With the exception of a few Republican ideologues on Mudcat, I think most of us agree that our government is in the hands of people we never elected and who manipulate our public policy for their personal gain. Far too many of our politicians are basically paid employees of large and corrupt corporations. I think we mostly agree that this is ruining our country and that we would like it to end. The way the Tea Party wants to go about it, however, is simplistic, unrealistic, uncompromising, combative, and actually plays into the hands of the corporations. And then their message is all mixed up with a coercive religious social agenda, which is where you and I part company on their goals.