The Tea Party: the New Anarchists

Source: Wikipedia

Wikipedia defines Anarchism as "the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority and hierarchical organization in the conduct of human relations. Proponents of anarchism, known as 'anarchists,' advocate stateless societies based on non-hierarchical voluntary associations."

If you remove the references to hierarchy and change 'stateless' to 'weak-state,' you essentially have the Tea Party. Since an extremely weak state is the closest manifestation of statelessness that can be achieved, the difference on that issue is purely theoretical, not practical. With respect to hierarchy, my perceptions are that the Tea Party has a frail alliance with Big Business (and their love of hierarchy) and, were it not for their common Liberal enemy, they would turn on each other post haste.

So for now, I think it may be useful to think of of the Tea Party as burgeoning Anarchists.