Calling themselves the Tea Party is a blatant misnomer. The original Tea Partiers were pressing for representative government and fair taxation. Their target were rich royal colonial governors who felt privileged ordained to enforce and benefit from revenue from their fellow colonists and not contribute to what they received. The present group with the same appellation wants what the governors of the pre-revolutionary era felt entitled to, not those in the Boston Tea Party. They are recreating a royalist group and disdain the fact that they live with people who do not share their views. Their concentration in rural and anti-modern areas of the country has given them power. This aberrant direction of making this country an armed camp with chaotic governance must be marginalized for all our sakes. Their movement is a contradiction in itself. The overwhelming majority reside in states that can not survive without help from the Federal Government. For every tax dollar sent to Washington more than one is returned. However they howl that they pay too much in taxes. Well then let's give them what they want. You only get from the Fed what you paid in. You only have to watch what will happen in those states that opposed the Health Care Law. They will take the money because they can not serve their citizens without it. Too many of them are good people liking a simpler life but are being manipulated by Koch Brothers et al controlled organizations like Freedomworks and the Heritage Foundation.

New York receives 0.79 per tax dollar paid. Colorado receives 0.81 per tax dollar paid. Massachusetts receives 0.82 for each tax dollar it pays.

Pointing your finger gets your thumb in your eye if you're not careful. Farah finger points at the single most effective group in American politics that opposes her socialist favorites. Farah's friends foolishly hate the Tea Party's entire philosphy. Farah lovingly agrees with her messiah's recent moves to unilaterally remove the federally mandated work requirements for welfare recipients signed into law by Bill Clinton. Farah loved it when her messiah said, "If you've got a business- you didn't build that. sombody else made that happen"! Her view that he Tea Party is rediculous begs the question: Do you believe the United Nations that we fund with billions if filled with friends of America? Truth be told, what Farah labels those "pesky intrusions of the federal government" in her playful redicule as a Tea Party sympton of activism is emboded in Dodd-Frank's expensive, onorous rules are killing small banks and killing small businesses that create jobs. Those are the pesky intrusions Farah chooses to forget or never heard of from her little Global" cacoon.

The Tea Party has latched on to All-American historical bywords and turned them into representing a circus-like form of a conservative movement. I dislike that, because it trivializes American History. Z

The UN is a useless entity.

The UN is often worse than useless. Its human rights agencies are usually led by dictatorial thugs who refuse to condemn human rights abuses except those allegedly perpetrated by Israel. Working for the UN is a paid vacation in Manhattan where you don't even have to pay parking tickets.

The opinion and the comments show how polarized the US is, so much so that our federal government is getting like the UN! (BTW do the Tea Partiers and NRA know that our Olympic athletes cannot carry guns into the venues to protect themselves? Why should the US participate in the Olympics?) There is a bigger political-economic difference between Boston (population 625K) and Wyoming (population 570K) than there is between Spain and the US. Put all the red states of Utah, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming together and you get roughly the population of blue city Chicago. Maybe those states don't need big government, but they have 8 senators and get a lot of federal money. The only way that the US survives this growing polarity is to unify on our basic constitutional values -- and we're deeply divided on this -- and otherwise allow more diversity in state and local government. Given these deep divisions I'm not optimistic that the US government can work any more effectively than the UN.

The Tea Party movement is built on stealth, paranoia and intimidation. Naturally, they assume everyone else thinks the way they do.

It's depressing that hey find arguments like "the UN is useless" compelling. "Don't think. Just hate."

I'm glad to see you stood up to socialism by avoiding public schooling. Logic and spelling are for losers!!!

Well, it wouldn't be the first time the inmates have taken over the asylum, but it is no less dismaying.

On the positive side: with Tea Party friends like profox, ozark, and thesystemworked, who needs enemies?

In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.

Farah Stockman makes a very feeble and erroneous attempt at the 'Blame-Game' in her Opinion piece against Tea Party members. Ms. Stockman claims the world leadership requires leading (sic leaders), however, she fails to acknowledge that it was the Obama administration who torpedoed the UN Arms Trade Treaty.

The United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), ran from July 2 to July 27, 2012. It was the United States who declared at the last-minute that it "needed more time" to review the short, 11-page treaty text. The conference ended in failure. The USA is also the last country to hold out on signing the Kyoto Treaty. The Kyoto Treaty is an international agreement between nations to keep greenhouse gas emissions down. It is a response to serious concerns about global warming.Obama is not going to do ANYTHING that will loose any campaign dollars from his re-election run! Voters need the truth to understand Obama is no leader, and detrimental to our future.

Kitch, you would denounce any organization that says or does anything favorable toward Muslims.