Happy Birthday to the Tea Party

There will be a celebration of the fifth anniversary of the Tea Party today in Washington DC.  The Wall Street Journal‘s Jason Riley gives a run down here.  The Tea Party is the best thing to happen to American politics since the tax revolt of the 1970s.  Paradoxically, its broader focus has made it both less easy to lead and organize effectively, and easier for liberal media to attack, such that polls show many voters in the middle have an unfavorable impression of the Tea Party even while they agree with many Tea Party points of view on individual issues.  It was ever so in politics.

In any case, on this fifth anniversary (and here’s to the next five years, where the Tea Party will be even more important), it’s worth savoring the famous Rick Santelli rant that got it all going (about four minutes long):

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