Tea Party, Cont’d

Jameson Graber responds to my post yesterday on the individualism of the Tea Party movement:

“This quote in your post caught my attention: ‘Today, populist rhetoric “fires up emotions by appealing to individual opinion, individual autonomy, and individual choice, all in the service of neutralizing, not using, political power.’ Mark Lilla apparently intended this as a criticism, but to me it is a sign that this is one of those rare moments in history in which people are actually passionate about equal justice under law. For far too long politicians have been playing on class warfare in order to achieve political ends, making laws in order to benefit some constituents at the expense of others. These Tea Party-ers, by clamoring for individual freedom above all else, demonstrate a passionate commitment to a principle that can be applied to all people equally, as opposed to some economic or social good, which mainly benefits themselves. However hypocritical the Tea Party movement might be in practice, in theory this ‘Libertarian Mob’ might be the most principled mob we’ve seen in a while.”