Tea Time

The defeat of Eric Kantor in a Republican primary yesterday has made it harder to say that the Tea Party is a false face. The Tea Party as a grassroots movement is still genuine. It went after Kantor, a rightwing stalwart, because he wasn't nutty. He doesn't hate Latinos. He knows the nation needs a government. With no money, the Tea Party thrashed the Wall Street Republicans. This does not translate nationally--that is, this kind of rebellion is today possible mostly in the South and in a congressional district that has been gerrymandered to include as many white racists as possible. But the tea party is a populist movement in certain locations, and not all of them are in Dixie.