Pam Stout, a Tea Party activist and paid organizer for the John Birch Society, quoted in the NY Times:

Mrs. Stout said she has begun to contemplate the possibility of “another civil war.” It is her deepest fear, she said. Yet she believes the stakes are that high. Basic freedoms are threatened, she said. Economic collapse, food shortages and civil unrest all seem imminent.

“I don’t see us being the ones to start it, but I would give up my life for my country,” Mrs. Stout said.

She paused, considering her next words.

“Peaceful means,” she continued, “are the best way of going about it. But sometimes you are not given a choice.”

Yesterday in Salem, FreedomWorks, an organization led by former Texas Rep Dick Armey, organized a “taxpayers” rally on the steps of the Capitol and spent two hours railing against “those inside” as well as a laundry list of government sins they hate (a law to require that guns on motorcycles be stored in lockboxes, as opposed to be freely available for quick release — by rider or thief). Similar rallies were held across the country; the Tea Party movement may have a strong grassroots element, but there’s no question about national control of many aspects of its organization and activity. Mrs Stout, a Sandpoint, Idaho, activist is no longer a local activist; she works for a national organization with a long history of fomenting fear of and anger towards the federal government.

What disturbs me about the Tea Party movement (and note, I’m using their preferred name and not their original, rather dimwitted “tea-bagger” title) is the exclusive and self-righteous tone of their calls for liberty. This, of course, is to be expected when they all turn to the same sources of information — Glenn Beck, websites, Oath Keepers, theories about the Trilateral Commission — and then gather together to repeat the threats and fears like a mantra. Given the economy’s collapse and the behavior of the big banks, and certain members of Congress (and some of the Obama Administration’s actions, and inactions), the rise of a fearful-to-the-point-of-paranoia anti-everything movement is not at all surprising.

The Tea Party movement, of course, is just business-as-usual. During the last decade, the left responded in similar ways, especially with the “war on terror”, passage of the Patriot Act, Gitmo and the rest of the Bush/Cheney program to bring the world under the benign rule of Pax Americana. On the fringe, the left had the “9/11 Truthers” (who, unlike the Tea Partiers, were treated as kooks by the mainstream media), among others. What the left did, however, was to organize politically and start winning elections — you know, follow the route of representative democracy instituted by our Constitution. The Tea Partiers, on the other hand, seem to be waiting for Glenn Beck to tell them to start shooting.

It’s not the irrationality of the Tea Partiers that bothers me. I expect that from people who’ve chosen fear over rational thought. I have as little love for the Federal Reserve as they, but I have an even greater belief in the power of democracy in the hands of the people — democracy waged by open dialogue, the ballot, and other Constitutional freedoms. The Tea Partiers use these tools as well, but they have no faith in them; or rather, I should say they are not willing to rely on these.

To a person, they seem to be saying they will “die for their freedoms” if necessary.

It will only be necessary if they decide it is so.

No federal government can ever have that kind of power. I’m not sure who they think will carry out the orders of a Beltway Stalin. If they read the Federalist Papers, they’d realize the Founders recognized and counted on the physical size of the nation to play a major role in protecting freedoms. This is even more true today. Who is going to march into Portland and subdue this city? My son is in the National Guard, willingly serving in Iraq; I know for damn sure he wouldn’t. While most members of the military would respond to actual riots and such, they would turn their weapons on their commanders if ordered to begin mass detainments of their fellow citizens — and few of their commanders would even issue such an order.

But the Tea Party movement has no faith in democracy or in their fellow Americans. They are choosing to trust only those who espouse their same party line — a characteristic, of course, of a cult. I trust the 300-plus million Americans with whom I share this country to muddle through somehow as long as they pledge their allegiance, not to the flag or a political ideology, but to the Constitution and the common good.

The common good is not a major point of discussion in the Tea Party that I can tell, and for a very good reason: they don’t want to preserve the commons. They want theirs. The simple fact is that the entire nation is suffering, and we won’t fix those problems by turning on one another. But the Tea Partiers probably won’t accept that I’m as patriotic as they are; my belief in the necessity of government — of, for and by the people — to provide the services they do (and more) “proves” I am an enemy of “the people”.

How do you reason with someone who has decided what The Truth is?

Those on the left who make the same mistake drive me even crazier; to my mind, they should know better. Liberalism means an openness of mind, a willingness to consider multiple possibilities in order to truly understand the workings of the world. Science and art are the hallmarks of liberalism. Fear is the death, not of liberalism, but of human freedom. Fear is running in blind panic through the jungle night, and we no longer live there. Our government has made a mess of many things, but it has also, in our name and with the support (and insistence) of many of us, expanded freedom far beyond the narrow bounds of the Founders (women in the movement should bear in mind what the Founders thought of them as political actors). Our government can respond positively in the name of liberty, but only if we, the people, organize democratically to lead that government forward. Martin Luther King, Jr, will forever be the epitome of what is possible.

The Tea Partiers need to look beyond Glenn Beck just as lefties have to read more than David Sirota or Daily Kos. We all need to bring doubt into our thoughts, to let ourselves be challenged in order to understand that no answer is simple and that any solution to our common problems will involve compromise. Which few, left or right, are willing to do.

The Tea Party movement is using threats of political and actual violence to force the change they demand, and they have no room for those who are not willing to drink the koolaid. Progressives have to show a better way, one that may be scary — we may not get everything we want — but that does respect the beliefs and aspirations of other people’s beliefs. If we want to show the nation the progressive way is a better alternative, we have to let other people, with their divergent beliefs, know they are welcome partners with us.

That’s not something you will hear from the self-righteous and self-justifying Tea Party movement.