If Only We Had a Real Tea Party

The Tea Party movement you hear so much about on the news “is what I’d actually call the ‘Tea Kettle movement,’” writes Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, “because all it’s doing is letting off steam.” It has real energy, and it may even sway the election. But “how can you take a movement seriously that says it wants to cut government spending by billions of dollars, but won’t identify” any specific cuts, and sat idly by while George W. Bush exploded the deficit?

“The issues that upset the Tea Kettle movement—debt and bloated government—are actually symptoms of our real problems, not causes,” Friedman says. “They are symptoms of a country … losing its competitive edge, because our politics has become just another form of sports entertainment.” A real Tea Party movement—and it’s brewing out there somewhere—would look for a leader with a vision for making America prosperous again. (More Thomas Friedman stories.)