So, what's more scary about the Tea Party, their economic policies, their desire for a theocracy, or their outrageous lying/believing of lies in the marketplace of ideas?

Have they shot themselves in the foot with their ideological purity and lack of compromise, or are there enough people in this country who see this technique as a good thing?

Bachmann and Perry are both eager to put their religion front and center in their campaigns; presumably in their potential administrations as well. Are there enough good Christians to offset the ignorant who will vote for them on that basis alone?

One thing I've been thinking as a result of the Tea Party movement is that it might be a good idea to require that we pass a civics test before we can vote. An idea fraught with problems and potential for abuse, I know, but what we have now is certainly full of abuse and problems. Most of our citizenry, apparently, believes we live in a society where the majority rules on any subject and the courts don't have the right to strike down laws. Should we sue every public school in the country who graduated anyone who thinks this way? Should we make it the highest priority to criminalize purposeful lying by public officials?

Here's another idea: the House of Representatives under the rule of the Tea Party spent a LOT of time trying to pass laws that were absolutely guaranteed to not make it into law and that would have been struck down by the courts even if they did. They spent a LOT of time reading the Constitution during House sessions. They held up funding for things as a gesture that ending up making those things a LOT more expensive. They sent our economy into another tail spin -- I'm a good deal more poor than I was before they scared the markets into a downturn. Can we sue them for wasting/losing all that money?

What about the damn tax oath they all signed? Doesn't that mean they have broken their oath of office? They have agreed to turn over their free will to a man who was never elected and who is certainly not our Constitution.

Is there any possibility of creating a culture where a politician's religion or lack thereof is a completely private affair?

Of course, some of these problems would go away if we took all money out of politics, but that's a whole other can o' worms.