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Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America

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The Tea Party: is it a ragtag group of Birchers and birthers, a band of Joes-the-Plumber, a nation of whiners, the silent majority, or politics as usual? Journalist Kate Zernike's timely book argues that there is no single defining phrase that can inscribe the Tea Party movement, because it is hardly a single unified "movement" at all: rather, it is a diverse conglomeration of movements and various political ideals that has taken hold of many Americans, who are "fed up" over government spending, the bailout(s), taxes, (the) health care (law), among other things.

In a sense, the Tea Party is (or was? I am uncertain whether or not to use the past tense) as federalized as it would like to see the United States. It has its origins in Seattle, Chicago, Boston and wherever else a group of neighbors decided to gather and discuss how they would subvert federal spending, health care, and the Republican Party status quo, etc. The Tea Party focuses primarily on economic issues: supporters fervently oppose illegal immigration, they seek the repealing of the health care law, they are infuriated by what they see as reckless federal spending and an ever increasing and looming budget deficit and national debt. Most are in favor of the free market, which they see as 100% American. Many tea partiers get their inspiration from Bastait, Hayek, von Mises, and Ayn Rand; one tea partier argued that (I quote from memory) "we all know that Keyensian economics has been proved wrong. It wasn't FDR's New Deal policies that saved the economy from the Great Depression, it was WWII." (This shows the extent of many a tea partiers' "reasearch".)

The Tea Party, like the Republican Party in general, holds to the conviction that the Constitution must be interpreted from an "originalist" perspective: they argue that economic and social programs originating with the New Deal are unconstitutional. Indeed, their idolization of the Constitution is almost religious in its fervor and zeal, to the point where some (most?) would like to see Congress police itself in not passing bills that it does not have the power to pass under "enumerated powers." (I kept wanting to whisper to them: this is the Supreme Court's job.)

Many older tea partiers, however -- somewhat inconsistently -- are strongly in favor of social programs like Medicare and social security, and at certain times in the book it seemed like some tea partiers were oblivious to the fact that they were attempting to have their cake and eat it too. Other tea partiers would like to see the movement take on social issues like gay rights and abortion (and the legality of the Obama presidency), but those who would not like to see the movement become encumbered by such divisive issues overwhelmingly oppose them.

Zernike writes that the Tea Party filled the void left by the crippled Republican Party in the wake of the 2008 electoral defeats. Many voters who had never been very politically active saw that the Republican Party had become weak and ineffective; they saw the Republican Party as co-conspirators vis-à-vis the Democrats in so far as they supported the massive bailouts in wake of the financial crises. The Tea Party took off into this void, writes Zernike, with the help of new social media and networking: Facebook, YouTube, email, something I've never heard of called Ning, and Twitter, a social networking forum that lets users post substantive messages up to 140 characters long. I would have liked Zernike to focus more on how the Tea Party(s) were funded and perhaps how the media acted as the "gatekeepers" (as sociologists would say) of the movement; we never are given a substantive response to the claim that the Tea Party is an "astroturf" movement.

Nevertheless we are given a very fair portrait of the Tea Party, written with wonderful journalistic syntheses that incorporate the first-person perspectives of those who are actually a part of the movement. I often found myself -- dare I say it -- understanding the anger that many tea partiers feel...

A comprehensive look inside Tea Party America. This book takes you person by person, story by story into the Tea Party. A great read for anyone interested in today's political climate. Zernike writes in a way that is easy to understand. It's obvious that this journalist has a passion for getting "the people's story" to the public.

This book is very entertaining and is educational for those of us new to politics. I've learned more from this book than I could watching the news for a year. The book has many stories in it which reveal methods that helped grow the Tea Party and methods for getting desired candidates elected. This is a must read!

"Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America" is Kate Zernike's fascinating look inside the American social phenomenon known as the Tea Party, introducing us to a cast of extraordinarily colorful characters and the ideas that motivate them.

What is America's Tea Party: a "constitutionalist" libertarian surgence? The reactionary rump of the GOP, struggling to remake itself after it's dreadful performance in the 2008 general election? A mass movement of angry white traditionalists resentful of every socially progressive notion from racial and gender equality to religious tolerance? A gaggle of decerebrate "Birthers" irremediably dedicated to the notion that our forty-fourth President is a Sumatran orang-utan, and worse, a Muslim to boot? Is it some of these, or all of these?

Whatever else it may be, the Tea Party is 'sui generis,' wholly in a class by itself: it is the first large-scale political movement of the twenty-first century and, along with the struggle for democratization in the Mideast, it along with the epochal the movement for an "Arab Spring" may set the tone for national and international political life for years to come.

The Tea Party burst on the scene at the height of the Great Recession and on the eve of the election of the first Black man to the highest office in the land: angry, white voters gathering by the hundreds of thousands to protest bank bailouts and big government. Evoking the Partisans of the Revolutionary War and the framers of the Constitution, they called themselves the Tea Party. Within months of Barack Obama's inauguration, they and the movement they initiated had changed the terms of engagement in Washington, hobbling the new administration's ability to get needed things done, confounding every effort at decency and bipartisanism and emboldening Republican intransigence.

As we learn from Ms. Zernike, the Tea Party movement has no central leadership, but is composed of a loose network of local groups that determine their own positions It's most noted national figures include politicians on the fringe of the Republican far right, such as Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and Dick Armey, with Congressman Ron Paul often described as the spiritual inspiration and "godfather" of the movement (surprisingly, as Dr. Paul is far less doctrinaire a right-wing ideologue than many - perhaps most - Tea Party followers.

Ms. Zernike has given her readers a very fair but deeply alarming portrait of the Tea Party, written with care and compassion, and incorporating extensive first-person perspectives of those who are inside the movement. I often found myself understanding the seething frustration that many of the Tea Party's activists feel, while at the same time chilled by the prospects of what that frustration, when married to racial and religious intolerance and aggressive nationalism, can accomplish. I strongly recommend 'Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America" to every student of contemporary political and social movements and the issues and personalities that drive them, as well as to every citizen concerned with the shape political life in the USA is likely to assume in the decades to come.

BOILING MAD: INSIDE TEA PARTY AMERICA offers the first definitive account of a misunderstood movement from a New York Times reporter who has covered the Tea Party more than any other journalist. It tells behind-the-scenes stories of activists behind the Party, considers politics and motivations, and follows its evolution through the experiences of its participants and originators. Any who would understand the history and influences of the Tea Party movement need this!

"Boiling Mad" is a great read and I never usually say that about a political book. It provides a great look into the origins of the Tea Party and the loyal people who stuck with it and made what seemed impossible happen. This book is a great "tell all" so to speak. The characters are real people who refused to be shut down by the establishment in both parties. I raise my tea cup to author Kate Zernike and the Tea Party.

If you wonder, "What are they thinking?!" this book will help you peel back the rhetoric to see the human beings behind the signs. It's a brief history of the diverse local groups that self-identify as the Tea Party, from their grassroots anger over bank bailouts and health care reform to their sometime alliances with politicians and organizations also seeking a smaller role for government--though these traditional federal foes often oppose many more programs than the typical Tea Partier, who tends to be at or near retirement age and doesn't want Medicare or Social Security eliminated. Tea Party members enjoy a strong sense of mission and community, they embrace some of the vigorous reform methods of Abbie Hoffman and MoveOn, and they revere the Constitution as an almost religious text that is selectively and narrowly interpreted. There is some divide between the libertarian side which wants to focus on strictly economic matters and those who want to include opposition to issues like abortion and gay marriage. This book is particularly interesting right now because it covers the primary campaigns, the how-did-they-win, of some Tea Party endorsed candidates in next Tuesday's election, including Rand Paul and Sharon Angle (who is opposing Senate Majority leader Harry Reid).

I bought this book for a friend who is an avid Democrat. I thought that they would find it informative. They refuse to read it.

"Boiling Mad" is a fun read as well as totally engrossing. I gobbled it up in a single sitting. It is about the rise of the Tea Party. The author Kate Zernike describes it as a grass roots movement using techniques of Move-on.org and the Obama campaign. The organizers are young and internet-savvy. But they have help from some GOP operatives including FreedomWorks (Dick Army) and Tea Party Express (funded by Koch brothers I think). They are angry about bailouts and about economic conditions in general. They avoid social issues by design and focus on economic issues. They have two classic American traits: blanket distrust of institutions and an astonishing and unwarranted confidence in self. "They are apocalyptic pessimists in public life and naïve optimists when it cones to their own powers." This is the thing I find most difficult to understand about not just Tea Partiers but the right wing anti-government crowd in general. This author points to the anti-Obama rhetoric, which the liberal media says is racial, but Zernike says is a reflection of peoples' reaction to change: the world doesn't look like it did when they grew up. They fear or dislike this new world. I think there is a lot to that.

They are constitutional originalists and treat the constitution much like the Bible: received text. They have the same mentality as evangelicals in that respect. But their interpretation of the Constitution comes from some weird sources, notably a book called 5000 Years (promoted by Glenn Beck) and writings by Francis Fukyama. They venerate the Tenth Amendment and want to--this is very odd-- repeal the 17th amendment (direct election of Senators) in the name of states' rights; repeal of the 16th (income tax) I could understand.

Other connections
Zernicke quotes an article by Mark Lilla in May 2010 NY Review of Books, which expands on the Tea Party fantasy of self-sufficiency (Tea Party Jacobians). Lilla says for more than ½ century Americans have been rebelling in the name of individual freedom. Tea Party is an outgrowth of that. Some want to be freer still. They want to be a people without rules. Very interesting and provocative article. This mentality has more in common with 60s liberals (as he points out) and is a very far cry from the traditional conservative. The central value of the conservative mind set, according to George Lakoff, is respect for authority; they love law and order and the military. Tea Party Zeitgeist is the polar opposite of that of the traditional conservatives.

Rachel Maddow had a great piece on September 23, 2010 showing the Fox crowd whining for their French fries, and criticizing Michelle Obama's healthy-eating campaign. It demonstrated every point in Mark Lilla's article. These folks aren't conservative or Libertarian. They are merely oppositional and defiant.

On October 2, 2010, I watched a CNN special "Right on the Edge," about young conservative "activists." They are actually internet saboteurs. The CNN commentator described them as people who want "no rules and no boundaries." Ties in perfectly with Mark Lilla's theory.

The book rambles on with profiles of people from different parts of the country (none of whom are terribly interesting) and from time to time, almost as an afterthought, tosses in some historical background. Several times when she mentions another book to illustrate her point (thankfully not focusing on a Bucks County housewife for once) I thought to myself, "Why am I not reading this book, instead?".