Tea Partying again

Attended the big local Tea Party in Chanhassen this evening; I had to cut out after the first hour.  While the 70 attendees are perhaps two-thirds male, women participate with enthusiasm; this group is female led.  They're proud to have graduated to a larger meeting room with this evening's installment.

A folksy conservative Christian leads us in prayer.  All eyes are closed and heads bowed.  We thank god for making America wonderful, "in Jesus' name".  Some Tea Partyers clearly perceive the movement as having an evangelical component.

The culture netherspirals as does the economy.  We must end fiat money, someone suggests, eliciting no disapproval.  A prim woman delivers an adoring tribute to Sarah Palin's Going Rogue.  Today's S&P downgrade of US debt strongly bolsters group reality-ownership.

Props all around, for Sarah Palin. 

Those who have served in the armed forces are asked to stand:  Without you, we couldn't even have this meeting.  The claim that my security requires boots on the ground in Iraq or Afghanistan has not been demonstrated.

Newbies stand up and introduce themselves. 

The shared muttering contempt for Obama contains some suspicious odor.

They want:  To get the country recommitted to patriotism and 'the founding principles'.  Their ideology, then:  The history buff's beloved picking-and-choosing from the past--asking the rest of us to participate in the fantasy by keeping our mouths shut.

If we accept the Tea Partyers' invitation to pick and choose our way through history for that which we like best--the result is not going to be anything other than politics--and within that perpetual maelstrom, few will defer to the Tea Partyers' more patriotic-than thou claim.