Limited government fires the tea party kettle, but a collective identity crisis could swallow the movement’s steam.
“I’m not even sure you or I could come up with a satisfactory definition of the Tea Party,” said Dr. John Geer, a political scientist at Vanderbilt University. “And if you ask individual members, they come up with all kinds of definitions.”
But Nick Ware disagrees. A tea party supporter from Catoosa County, Ga., Mr. Ware said he and his friends joined because they were concerned with “the spending going on in our country.” He became a tea party supporter in 2008, opposing “all the government bailouts” approved by President George W. Bush.
“If you want to believe a religion, believe in gay rights, believe in abortion, you have that freedom,” said Mr. Ware, who labeled himself a political independent. “But there is serious unity about up-in-your-face tax raising and paying back the deficit. It affects us all.”
Hamilton County Democratic Party Chairman Jeff Brown thinks the movement has a seamier underbelly.