[DanZ]

“but to call Brat the tea party candidate is a misnomer.”

I would argue that Brat is indeed a T.E.A. party winner. Since there are so few defined “leaders” of the T.E.A. party, I say the local populace that is FED up with the big g’ment B.S. from their elected officials have finally had enough and are doing something about it LOCALLY

[kabar]

Brat embraces many of the Tea Party principles of individual liberty, limited government, moving more power from the Federal government to the local government, fiscal prudence, adherence to the Constitution on the role of government, etc. But his views on immigration are not shared by many in the Tea Party.

The Tea Party is not a hierarchical organziation but a coalition of local groups around basic principles. There are no national leaders. No one speaks for the Tea Party writ large.

I think the Tea Party movement suffers some of the problems that Eric Hoffer described:

Up to now, America has not been a good milieu for the rise of a mass movement. What starts out here as a mass movement ends up as a racket, a cult, or a corporation.