Can the Tea Party deliver?

The Christian Science Monitor has my thoughts on the Tea Party movement and what it needs to succeed. Although the prospects are unfortunately dim, for reasons I give in the article, I do suggest there is a glimmer of hope, if the movement decides to get serious about individualism:

The tea party’s adherents would need to discover the moral principle underlying the often quoted but little understood ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They would need to argue that all schemes that sacrifice the individual to society are morally wrong. And they would need to argue that this country’s most rational and industrious citizens—including business leaders, doctors, health insurers, and taxpayers and productive individuals in all walks of life—are oppressed victims who deserve to be liberated, by permanent repeal of laws and regulations that invade their rights.

In short, the tea party would need to fully embrace individualism as a moral ideal. Although the odds against this are exceedingly large, I think there’s some cause for optimism. For the first time, a resistance movement is looking for answers in Ayn Rand’s writings. From the original public rant that inspired the tea party idea (when CNBC reporter Rick Santelli said “at the end of the day, I’m an Ayn Rander”) to last fall’s US Senate victory by Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson (who calls “Atlas Shrugged” his “foundational book”), Rand’s uncompromising defense of individualism has become a part of the tea-party mix.

Can the tea party deliver on its promise to cut back big government? Yes it can, but not unless its supporters awaken to the need for moral intransigency in pursuing individual liberty.

I’ll be interested to read the comments that are accumulating, to see how other interested observers view the movement’s future. And this just in: Yahoo News has picked up the article.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Read more at The Ayn Rand Center