Since 1933 we’ve lived under something called the Modern State. This entity takes in vast amounts of taxes and redistributes the money to certain constituencies via the federal faucet. The institutional Democratic and Republican parties fight over the direction of the outflow of the federal faucet. This outflow goes to individuals, corporations, the Foreign Policy Community and the Military Industrial Complex, among others. The purpose of the two parties is to collect money from their constituencies to direct that outflow to those constituencies. It’s how business is done in America.
The Modern State is how we project power as the world’s policeman. The Modern State is how we govern and take care of each other. The Modern State is how the Union is held together: a combination of carrot (pork) and stick (a large standing army).
The Tea Party’s goal is to return to a model of federalism last seen before the Civil War, and that means the starvation and demolition of the Modern State. This is why John McCain and David Brooks view the Tea Party as quite literally insane. From their perspective, there is only one way to govern in today’s world, and that is the Modern State. Without the glue of a national debt, a fiat currency, pork and military intimidation, how could the Union be held together, considering that its citizens no longer share a common vision?
This is what terrifies the Establishment. They do not believe that a return to the principles of the Founding Fathers is possible or even relevant in today’s world. They see federalism as the bygone relic of the Republic that died at Appomattox. They view the Tea Party as not merely a threat, not merely subversive, but insane.
This is what we're up against.
Yup. Very nice summation. And right on the money!
I would settle for a model of federalism that simply predates the New Deal!