I totally agree with you here, Gary. Precision is an essential intellectual virtue. How can we speak seriously without it? “The public”? The public has no agency nor consciousness, only individuals do. Furthermore, by referring to abstract groups rather than individuals, we lose that connection between two minds that provides the possibility for changing another’s mind. And this is the heart of a healthy democracy: serious, rational debate with the aim to convince, but also the openness to be convinced.

However, Dr. Fine is correct in his claim that the Tea Party is difficult to categorize, and cannot be reduced to the spirit of any single individual. This has left the movement vulnerable to being highhacked by wingnuts in order to serve their own personal ends. Original, and more sane voices, such as Ron Paul have been shoved out of the picture.

Regardless, the movement as a whole seems to suffer from a collective delusion, one among many I may add, that the present tax rates are too high. In fact, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, in 2009 they were at their lowest rate since 1950. It is because of such ironies, or what Iris termed “ignorance,” that I am not inclined to take the Tea Party seriously; that, and the fact that Michelle Bachman has somehow appointed herself their spokeswoman.

Although they do carry some political clout, it seems doubtful to me that they can make a significant impact on the 2012 race as there is currently a push back against what the Tea Party has wrought.

1. The whole unemployment rate going above 8% argument – Christina Romer, with her academic credentials, as well as her plain and cheerful looks and manner, was a very good spokeswoman on the economy. She did make a mistake early on in the Obama administration in underestimating just how terrible George W. Bush left the economy. This cannot be used to discredit initiatives taken to lower the unemployment rate.

2. The stimulus didn’t do enough – First of all there were many worthy projects supported. Lost in the whole media frenzy to cover the Tea Party outrage, important stories were largely missed about the support for alternative energy, broadband, education, and health care. Infrastructure also got a boost, as I can attest by just looking around my local area. As people should remember, the term “shovel ready” was the phrase of the day to make sure things got going fast. If there’s anyone to blame for bigger infrastructure projects being scuttled, it’s the Republicans with their Tea Party supporters who didn’t want a bigger stimulus and seemingly would prefer bridges to collapse rather than more government spending. Obama highlighted his desire for more infrastructure spending for the “Winning the Future” initiative outlined in his State of the Union address. And finally, if grad students got money to spend, what’s wrong with that?

3. Avoiding a depression – That, in my opinion, is a pretty big deal. How can one complain about government spending, and then say it avoided a depression, and not be happy about it?

4. Taxes – The Tea Party people complain about paying taxes. Are they all rich and selfish? My guess is that a majority paid less tax under the stimulus program, and are just ignorant. Ignorance goes a long way, in my opinion, for much of what the Tea Party wants. It’s not that they don’t like what government gives them, they just don’t want to pay for it. And as religious as they may be, their idea for helping the less fortunate amounts to putting some change in the church collection box. The notion that government, as a collection of people working together for the betterment of the country as a whole,is beyond them. It’s just, me, me, me. Good ol’ American individualism.

Now everyone’s talking about the deficit and the debt. Is the Tea Party angry that Obama spent six hundred billion dollars, or Bush’s trillions? You can definitely credit the Tea Party for moving that issue forward, though spending should be a priority in the near future to make sure the economy keeps growing and people find jobs. I wonder what those Tea Party folk who said “Keep your government hands off my Medicare” would say to Paul Ryan?

I agree with William Milberg. Obama wins in 2012! Or at least he better, and with more Democrats elected along side him. The antidote for the Tea Party must be people, who might not be easily defined, but who nonetheless get motivated to oppose this wave of nonsensical, mean-spirited, conservative, libertarian destructiveness from doing more damage.