Not sure why it is, but journalists (even conservative journalists), as well as Republicans have a very hard time understanding what the Tea Party movement is about. Today’s editorial in the Wall Street Journal by Thomas Frank misses the mark, yet again. He seems to conclude that it is “reactionary” and wanting to reverse the long course of history. No, that’s not it. Tea Party devotees are reactionary against the expanded role of government and its creeping (or runaway, depending on your perspective) intrusions on our everyday life and freedoms. The Tea Party is reactionary to an increasingly oppressive government, and that’s the direct parallel to the Tea Party of Colonial times when the populace of America could simply stand the oppression no more.

Frank’s editorial references an interesting Republican Powerpoint from the RNC that references the Tea Party as driven by “‘Fear’ and ‘Extreme negative feelings toward existing Administration.’ These donors are, in the language of the presentation, ‘Reactionary.’”  As you can see even the RNC misses the point: Much of the Tea Party’s vitriol is directed against the Republicans themselves to the extent that they are complicit in promulgating and/or acquiescing to Big Government. The FreedomWorks website says it pretty clearly: “Lower Taxes, Less Government, More Freedom”.