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In 1773 Boston hosted a tea party that has taken on mythological importance in American history.  Boston was not the first American city to refuse delivery of British tea just the most radical.  It was over sixty years before American spin-doctors created the Tea Party out of an economic protest, forging a campaign slogan for the history books.   The controversy over the so-called Tea Party did contribute to the eventual fall of British governments in America.

Now over 200 years later a Tea Party has been institutionalized as a political movement.  The Boston tea party generated the slogan “No taxation without representation.”  The new Tea Party slogan may come to be “Radical representation without legislation.” 

The Tea Party gained a following on an anarchist agenda of all government is evil.  With a little power it becomes a disruptive political force.  Tea Party governors attempted to become despots ruling by dictate, destroying democracy within their fiefdoms.  In Congress the Tea Party presented no solutions to national challenges but followed their agenda of disruption.  With their agenda of ruination more important than solutions the Tea Party has done more to destroy America than al-Qaida.

Al-Qaida's target is perceived corrupted Islam and those that supported that corruption.  The Tea Party's target is its perceived corrupted American mythical ideal.  The difference is al-Qaida has limited influence even in the Muslim world but America was the lynch pin of World order.  The legislative confrontation brought on by Partiers broke the lynch pin of an already fragile system.  The eleventh hour deal came too late to save the United States' reputation of economic stability that the world could depend on.  Linked markets spiraled down, America lost its solid gold reputation and the international order embraces a multi-polar economic order that may or may not include the United States.  It is unlikely the present economic mess will equal the “Crash of 29” because the United States is no longer the sole economic center of the world and other markets mitigate catastrophic collapse.

The measures of international power have shifted; armies and industry no longer insure greatness.  Power is now technology and will, a product of brain power which has no borders. Technology is diffused across artificial borders, information flows with little restraint.  Political and economic power has many aspirants who have smarts and the will to advance.  The question is does America have the necessary will to remain in the front rank of states?

Al-Qaida and Tea Partiers have a common goal, the return to a mythical past.  The past was never as good as nostalgia imagines and can't be recaptured.  Re-enactors visit moments of the past while ignoring the lessons of the past.  The past is for romance and learning.  Survival is for visions and drive to the future.

If the United States is to regain world respect it will require hard choices and sound visions for a future world system.  Remaining focused of past greatness insures that greatness will never return.  To opt-out of international participation in cooperative economic system is equally destructive. To recapture what has been lost through intransigent political posturing may require a generation to over-come.  It will require cooperation of politicians a consensus of national will. 

The party is over and the Partiers must learn that if they are not part of the solution they are part of the problem.