The Amorphous Tea Partier

The original Bostonian protesters against a tea tax were focused in what they were against. It wasn't the tax per se. It was that they didn't like it that the tax had been levied by the British Parliament instead of their local legislature.

The modern brand of protester is somewhat less precise in his complaint. Taken at face value the Tea Partiers seem to be protesting taxes in general. That would mean they are against paying for the Defense Department, debt service, Medicare, and Social Security. Remove these four from the tax burden and you're left with a piddling amount.

I may be wrong, but I doubt that the average Tea Partier is against any of those. He may not like paying for them, but he doesn't want to do away with them either.

There is, however, a segment of the population which would like to see two of these (excluding debt service and the Defense Department) go away. I refer to that 1% of the population that controls 80% of the nation's wealth. They have no need, and thus no use for Medicare and Social Security. It's paradoxical that this minuscule minority has somehow coaxed a sizeable segment of the population into a protest against its own best interest. Strange.