I agree with Burke's Corner that the modern reincarnation of the American Tea Party movement appears as anti-tory and anti-government as its Boston predecessor of 1763. But let's not dismiss this libertarian mob as a bunch of juvenile antipolitical Jacobins when it is government that is getting way out of control with its trillion dollar deficits.
The Burkean is fundamentally about maintaining good order and the permanence of tested institutions as the best way to safeguard human liberty - the disorder we see in Greece and to a more limited degree in the United States, is not because a loose cannon of radio talkshow hotheads are revolting over the airwaves and egging on their followers, it is because the governments themselves are destabilizing our societies through their own reckless behaviour. The Burkean is not anti-government, but neither is he slavishly pro-government; we should be as concerned as the Tea Party about what is going on, and what this will collectively mean for us in the years to come.
We can make common cause here - let us put away the Pimm's and drink the tea.
That's a great column, well done!
ReplyDeleteComplete nonsense. As one who has witnessed this 'tea party' rabble for himself, I assure you no reasonable man would want to count them as company. No matter what your argument may be against the US government, this lot are not the answer- or even an answer.
ReplyDeleteAs an American disciple of Burke, I sort of resent your remarks and mischaracterization of the Tea Party movement as a whole. They're harmless and too impotent to have power to do anything because of the statism in this country.
ReplyDeleteThey have meaningful cause to dislike a government that so recklessly wastes money, bankrupts its people, robs its posterity, and undermines its own long-term stability. America might geniunely reach the point of disunion.
You must not forgot the Tory tempestuousness at reconciliation with the colonists. The Tories did not heed the Old Whig Burke, and they lost their colonies because of their pride. I would be content with reconciliation myself.
Conservative should defend liberty under law and the English common law. That's in decline in both the UK and the US sadly.