You Can't Crash a Tea Party

The news wires were abuzz recently with news that a movement is afoot to "crash" the Tea Parties. Activist Jason Levin states, "Every time we have someone on camera saying that Barack Obama isn't an American citizen, we want someone sitting next to him saying, 'That's right, he's an alien from outer space!'" Reading the coverage on this confirms what I have long suspected of self-proclaimed liberals. They are suspicious and contemptuous of freedom. More precisely, they are suspicious of bottom-up, people-powered systems. They prefer top-down, institution-powered movements.

A telling example, which should serve as a warning and life-lesson to Jason Levin and his merry band of statists, was Stephen Colbert's attempts to vandalize Wikipedia. Colbert criticizes "wikiality" as democratizing and therefore relativizing truth. There is a point to that. Truth is absolute, and should not be reduced to what we vote on as being true. That's not how Wikipedia operates, though. There are procedures for resolving disputes. People can be wrong, and are, but then others have the opportunity to correct them. The same is true in academia.

The difference is that Wikipedia is very, yes, democratic in how it operates. Jimmy Wales intended, in part, that Wikipedia be used to illustrate the insight of Hayek that knowledge is distributed. Wikipedia is able to harness this distributed knowledge in the same way markets do -- through voluntary cooperation. There's no man behind the curtain making pronouncements. There is only us.

That's true of the Tea Party movement, as well. Various politicians have attempted to become the face of the Tea Parties, but none have succeeded. None likely will succeed. The movement is a non-partisan platform for citizens to speak their minds and condemn their unresponsive leaders. No unions or corporations are sponsoring the events. No messianic figure is pulling the strings. The people are speaking directly to their leaders, the would-be men behind the curtain, and those on the left find it frightening and terribly upsetting.

That is why the Crashers cannot succeed for the same reason that Colbert was unable to derail Wikipedia. The movement is bigger than the individuals that compose it. The anti-tax, anti-spending message resonates with the American people, which is why it has gained traction. Other messages, such as the idea that Barack Obama is not an American citizen, are freely aired by naturally tuned out by the American people. If you attempt to derail the movement by promoting a nonsensical message about Barack Obama being a space alien, then the marketplace of ideas will sharply discount you and your speech.

This is what true democratic power looks like. There are many voices, many agendas and many messages. Despite all of the apparent chaos, the Tea Partiers are making their voices heard. They are making a difference, and come November, they may be remaking American politics.