Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin kicked off a Tea Party rally Saturday in Sen. Harry Reid's hometown, encouraging disgruntled Americans to "take back our country"The call for "conservative revolution" was also made in the 1920's in Europe in what was then the Weimar Republic. Conservative fanaticism differs little from one setting to another: Russophiles for Putin, Mullahs in Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt ...
Pentecostal Evangelists in Canada - a tiny minority - have been more successful in many ways than any other crank minority in influencing a conservative political movement. Of course, Palin denies that she is a Pentecostal: she simply attends Pentecostal churches. The approach in Canada has been to get people of the radical faith into politics under other banners.
What would a "Tea Party" in New York or Washington be today? A riot only? What revolution do the gun-toters imagine they are about to ram down the people's throats? In Canada the aims have not always been modest - but eventually moderated.
Whether Palin will sign a "Covenant of Civility" remains to be seen: her raving followers may not have such scruples.
"take back our country" - but from whom and for whom and in the name of what? All this to abolish Social Security and Medicare? To abolish the Federal Reserve? To abolish the the EPA? To "restore" single-party politics? To remove term limits for true Christian conservatives wearing the badge of permanent revolution?
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