Catholic Lawyers Against the Rube Tea Party Movement (Updated)

It is hard to imagine a more condescending piece written by a educated person than this one at Mirrors of Justice.

See 'Tea Parties' & 'Friendly Fascism' by Robert C. Hockett Professor of Law. I suspect someone will reply to this over there.

Here I go again a non Tea Party dude defending the Tea Party movement to some degree. For reasons why I am not a Tea Party Guy see Catholics and The Tea Party Movement .

That post I wrote yesterday also I thinks shows why I think it is just idiotic at this point to try to pin down what exactly the Tea Party is or what they believe. I am very cautious about hearing official statements from some Tea Party Leadership in fac because I think that it differs from place to place.

What is it about the Tea Party that gives some folk such alarm. When we saw all the protest at the Republican convention (which some were violent and resulted in convictions for attempted terrorist acts).

I did not go OH LORD the country is coming to a end. Those people represent a larger movement that is dangerous. I did not go look at the people who oppose Republicans THEY ARE ALL NUTS!!

When we saw the protest at GOP 2004 Convention and every idiot was paraded in front of a camera I did not assume they represented a danger to the Republic or they were ALL not educated.

I did not get upset that much over the anti war protest.

But it seems outside the Pro-life movement and the March for Life any protest of conservatives is met with alarm.

Prof Hockett is acting like my grandparents did during the 60's when looking at protests movements . Of course these protest have not been violent at all and don't involve the consumption of mass qualities of drugs. Perhaps if the uneducated rubes would do a little LSD and have orgies on the National Mall while protesting for smaller Government Prof Hockett could get on board.

Fascism and the Nazis are mentioned of course.

I have no doubt some Tea Party groups are nuts!! However I have seen other Tea Party groups that have been productive in civil discourse. In Baton Rouge for example the tea Party opposed a tax that the Mayor had on the ballot. I supported it. However some of their objections were valid. The tax did not pass. I was not too happy. I don't live in Baton Rouge anymore but I still have conserns over the city. However their oppostion was thoughtful and constructive.

It is way too early to get a grip on what the Tea Party is. In fact it is way too early to think that this movement will survive. I try to engage it though it gets tiresome when I do so some of the Tea Party folks accuse me of being a GOP guy that just wants to Co opt them.

So I will criticize them when I think they are wrong, continue to urge that they police themselves(we are seeing signs of that), and support them when I think they are right.

However I don't think Prof Hockett piece is not really a good way to engage fellow citizens in this conversation we are having. Even if we disagree with them.

There are I think some bad elements in the Tea party movement in some areas. I have major concerns in places like South Carolina that the Tea Parties might be taken over by some radicals. But it is different from place to place. It is young movement that really has no leadership at this point to guide it as a whole. So we shall what happens.

UPDATE!!!!

Sanity!!!! Prof Rick Garnett responds at "Tea Parties", Catholic legal theory, and Godwin's Law

Update II Prof Hockett responds and gives a clarification