◼ The only reason Washington has even talked about proposals to slow the growth of government spending, instead of robotically jacking up the nation's credit line for the 11th time in a decade, is that a large, decentralized group of citizen activists has spent the last few years loudly telling politicians from both parties one consistent message: Restrain your own power or face our wrath. - pittsburghlive.com
Boehner did not hold the line in debt-ceiling negotiations out of any evident sense of principle. He did it because the tea party helped send more than 90 brand-spanking-new representatives and senators to Washington last fall, and those people are talking and acting differently from the 21st-century Republicans Americans have grown to hate. He knows that if he continues to disrespect the limited-government tradition, these activists will punish him and his party come 2012.
This is the enduring lesson of the tea party, and it's one that any sort of political group would do well to emulate: By refusing to be cowed by one of the major parties, and promising to inflict damage if its aims are ignored, this grassroots uprising shows how political independents can force mainstream parties to do their bidding.
In a country where the single largest political affiliation is now neither Democrat nor Republican but "independent" (38 percent, according to Gallup; 37 percent, according to the Pew Research Center) and where a whole generation of Americans has grown up fluent in the online skills that are disrupting incumbents in all other walks of life, the political winds seem to be blowing in the same direction: away from dominant political tribes that are justifiably leaking market share and toward individuals who are fed up with bipartisan logjams that produce asinine policies.
