Suddenly the Tea Party is the most selfish, arrogant and yet servile lot on the planet, according to one Jennifer Burns, an assistant professor at Stanford, for The New York Times, here:
". . . the Tea Party, whose members believe they are the only ones who deserve government aid."
Wow. Haven't heard that one yet. Is that what it takes to get tenure at Stanford these days? The intimate connection she divines between the Randians and the Tea Party is, quite simply, the sort of fantasy one might expect of someone trying to find something new to say. Not that the Shruggers wouldn't like to co-opt the Tea Party. They would, and they are trying, as is the Republican Party's Dick Armey, which is enough to give anyone who has watched them from the beginning the staggers. The spontaneous revulsion of common, everyday folk in America to the designs of their elected leaders provoked the reaction which is the Tea Party, most of which is as non-ideological as a hamburger.
I dunno, maybe she's confusing the Tea Party with Occupy Wall Street, some of whose members are infamous for demanding student loan forgiveness, and the right to poop on your stoop.
Just two years ago in Slate Mark Gimein could reasonably characterize the Tea Party as "the responsibles" who rose up against "the deadbeats", homeowners who had stopped paying on their mortgages and wanted bailouts from the Obama regime even as millions of underwater homeowners continued to pay on theirs.
I guess Jennifer is fairly new to the planet.