Dengre has a good post up on this topic at Balloon Juice, basically equating the Tea party with the Confederate Party. He views the CP as one of the many reactionary back to the past movements active throughout the world, but also views it as a sort of parasite, taking over its host political parties (first the Dems, then Wallace’s movement, now the Republicans).

“Today the Confederacy Party wears different Party labels like finely embroidered sheets that glide in the moonlight. The Republican Party is a brand they control, but in the wake of George W. Bush it was a damaged brand. So the Confederate Party did some marketing and came up with yet another name and yet another mask: The Tea Party.

“Racism and xenophobia are the core organizing tools, along with old chestnuts like ‘states rights’ and fear of ‘big government’. Appeals to selfishness are also key, but it is quiet racism and fear that holds the blob of hate together. Without racism and fear they have nothing.”

Good read.