Tea Parties...

Look, it’s simply too early in the election cycle for tea parties.

But what is interesting to me is this---they’re really just hippies in their own strange way. Albeit, not communal types. But counter culture nihilists for sure.

Why are these conservatives (Okay, libertarians) always decades behind?

Look at Sarah Palin’s glasses. Didn’t your groovy aunt wear those fifteen years ago?

I do not take them seriously, these celebrators of caffeine. In fact, I welcome them since they are going to split the Republican party into jittery pieces.

But let’s not be dismissive of this movement. These people are screaming about the government getting out of their lives because the government, from their point of view, is simply not working. They have a point. But, the government is not working because, well, you heard Evan Bayh—our government is completely dysfunctional.

Now, I am not a complete critic. I am a problem solver. But solving this mess? I think there is only one way to do it: Our president must sack up, become a bit of a tyrant, and stop this mamby-pamby consensus stuff and lead. Hard.

In any organization I have ever had the fortune and misfortune to be a part of, there are always strong differences of opinion. And these opinions are heard—and felt---as ripples. But the main thrust, the main energy, comes from the top. And that is the stabilizing force.

So let the tea party dress up and run around and have their own version of The Summer of Love. And let the super lefties get all righteous and cry in their milk. And let the regular Republicans fart on and on about lowering taxes. And let the Democrats quibble about policy until the God of Tedium decides enough is enough.

But let the president look at all of this and see it for the folly that it is and start smacking down. If that lunatic Bush could smack us down into insane actions, surely, this cool, smart man can smack us into sanity. Sack up and smack down, Obama.