Reihan Salam has a typically insightful post up on the ‘keenly observant’ chronicling of the Tea Party movement by National Journal writer, Jonathan Rauch who, as it happens, I was listening to on NPR this morning talking about the Tea Parties. It was a good interview, and touched especially on the phenomenon of being a truly national yet still grassroots movement without any leadership. Indeed, the movement isn’t even a hydra yet – there are not even competing heads vying for leadership of the still very decentralized Tea Parties.
Reihan links to two essays by Rauch. The first, “The Tea Party Paradox” illustrates how the growth of the Tea Party movement may actually come at the expense of the Republican Party – something we’ve been witnessing for the past few primary elections, and a point driven home by the recent victory of Christine O’Donnell over the Republican ‘establishment’ candidate, Mike Castle.
