Peter Berkowitz on the TEA Party Movement

This is good stuff. Berkowitz explores the response of the elites to the TEA Party Movement and why they have such disdain.

To be sure, the tea party sports its share of clowns, kooks and creeps. And some of its favored candidates and loudest voices have made embarrassing statements and embraced reckless policies. This, however, does not distinguish the tea party movement from the competition.

Born in response to President Obama's self-declared desire to fundamentally change America, the tea party movement has made its central goals abundantly clear. Activists and the sizeable swath of voters who sympathize with them want to reduce the massively ballooning national debt, cut runaway federal spending, keep taxes in check, reinvigorate the economy, and block the expansion of the state into citizens' lives.

In other words, the tea party movement is inspired above all by a commitment to limited government. And that does distinguish it from the competition.

The disdain of the elite comes from their ignorance not only of the TEA Party Movement, but of the origins and history of the US Constitution. Berkowitz is happy to point these out.