This Will Not Be Your Father’s Congress

So says Lawrence Kudlow, at least, and I happen to agree. Kudlow says he is “once again getting energized” after seeing Tea Part primary victories in Delaware and New York, and he sees free-market capitalism making a comeback in large part due to the Tea Party movement and what he calls a “revolution”:

Free-market capitalism is on the comeback trail. That’s one of the key tea-party messages. And make no mistake about it: The free-market power of the tea-party political revolt is totally bullish for stocks and the economy.

In short, this is a revolution.

There has been no shortage of coverage regarding the Tea Party movement; stories trying to “define” it have ranged from calling them racists or likening them to Nazi brownshirts to being a bunch of crazed rightwing pitchfork-toting nutjobs. Try though their detractors might, however, the movement grows.

Consider the deliciously odd dynamic in these 2010 midterm elections that brings us to a place where the White House (not on the ballot) is focusing more on running against the Tea Party as opposed to running ON its own accomplishments:

President Obama’s political advisers, looking for ways to help Democrats and alter the course of the midterm elections in the final weeks, are considering a range of ideas, including national advertisements, to cast the Republican Party as all but taken over by Tea Party extremists, people involved in the discussion said.

White House and Congressional Democratic strategists are trying to energize dispirited Democratic voters over the coming six weeks, in hopes of limiting the party’s losses and keeping control of the House and Senate. The strategists see openings to exploit after a string of Tea Party successes split Republicans in a number of states, culminating last week with developments that scrambled Senate races in Delaware and Alaska.

“We need to get out the message that it’s now really dangerous to re-empower the Republican Party,” said one Democratic strategist who has spoken with White House advisers but requested anonymity to discuss private strategy talks.

Clearly the Democrats don’t *get* the Tea Party, and they don’t *get* why these ‘crazy’ people are having such an effect on some of these races; people are fed up with what has become of their Government, and they are demanding change. Even one of Obama’s greatest cheerleaders is beginning to recognize the degree to which the Administration is out of touch with the American people. But the Tea Party IS the American people…or at least 50-60 percent of the American people…and they have had enough of the policies put forth under this Democrat-controlled Congress. This is what Democrats either don’t understand, or are too afraid to admit.

The Tea Party is a leaderless Army whose ranks span the entirety of “we, the People” in all its diverse glory. They are just as likely to critique the right as they are to vilify the left…and they are more than happy to support the quirky if it means they can rid the country of the ideologically impure.

It’s a natural human trait to vilify that which you fear. And, it’s not unusual for people to mock that which they don’t understand. The Tea Party has been vilified…it has been (and continues to be) feared…but it outnumbers those who choose these things over outperforming them on the issues at hand.

At their own electoral peril.

[Note: This article originates at Liberty.Com]