Advice to Tea Party: Go Green

Thomas Friedman figures the Tea Party, like similar protest movements, is good for 10% to 20% of the vote. But if it wants to truly change America, he suggests a change in focus by going green. He's even got the manifesto written: “We, the Green Tea Party, believe that the most effective way to advance America’s national security and economic vitality would be to impose a $10 'Patriot Fee' on every barrel of imported oil, with all proceeds going to pay down our national debt.”

Friedman knows it's a pipe dream, he writes in the New York Times. The current "hard libertarian right" Tea Party would never support a fee on carbon-based energy. But "if we don’t start now, every solar panel, electric car and wind turbine we’ll have to buy when climate change really hits will come with instructions in Chinese. Go Green Tea Party." (More Tea Party stories.)