Nerd Analysis: A History Prof Looks at the Tea Party In the Light of American History

Read it all.  This is a real and thoughtful history professor, mind you, not a shrieking ideologue of the type found all too often on campuses.  Here is a taste of his article after the fold:

But as Thomas Jefferson observed in the wake of the rebellion mounted by Daniel Shays in 1786, if the “turbulence” to which popular government is “subject” is regrettable, “even this evil is productive of good. It prevents the degeneracy of government, and nourishes a general attention to the public affairs.” In Europe, Jefferson explained, “under the pretence of government, they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves and sheep.” He feared that the same would in time happen in America. If the people in the United States should ever “become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I,” he wrote to one correspondent, “and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors shall all become wolves.”From the outset, Jefferson feared that in this country the government would eventually find its way to what his friend James Madison would later call a “self directed course.” It was with this unwelcome prospect in mind that he asked, “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve their spirit of resistance?” In the end, then, one does not have to agree with the Tea Party movement in every particular to welcome its appearance.

PARTY ON!  In fact, the more the self-proclaimed, self-absorbed public elites scream against the Tea Party, the more convinced I'm convinced that it's doing a necessary job of asserting the freedom of the average American citizen and reminding those elites who would rather forget about that.  We're not all sheep yet.