Wes Mantooth

I still think without firm leadership or a proper public platform its too difficult to truly define exactly what they stand for, there are too many people involved with it who carry too many different ideas about what direction the party should take. Its easy to point at toothless rednecks carrying misspelled hate signs to rallies as the face of a movement but three years ago they were carrying the same signs to Joe the Plumber rallies and acting all hot and bothered about McCain/Palin. They want to bitch and will latch on to any movement or party that even slightly tolerates their presence, without leadership to condemn the practice on a national level what can anybody really do about it?

On the flip side I'm not sure if you can point to any of the high profile members as an example either. How many of them are usurping the movement to stay relevant in the press? How many of them will scurry back to the GOP the minute the next Presidential election rolls around? In other words we don't know if somebody like Sarah Palin is either a real representative of the movement or somebody that's going to stick around and help define it when an opportunity arises in the GOP come the next election. Can we look find any numbers to see how many self identified members across the US support any of the people trying to emerge as the face of the party (that's an honest question, have there been any polls that would give us an idea)?

I think we can all read the writing on the wall about the direction this movement is taking if things don't change. However I'm not sure its fair to paint everybody involved right now in the Tea Party with the same broad brush until a platform is outlined behind popular leadership. Without a point of reference subscribed to by the majority of its constituency its all guess work based on personal experiences and whatever we can gather from the press.

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