Krauthammer on the Tea Party

Via NRO:

I think that liberal outreach has about as much chance of success as the Obama outreach to Iran. . . .

It's [the Tea Party] not the caricature as the press had it — as the disaffected, the poor, the losers — unsuccessful, racist, ignorant, uneducated whites. Which is exactly what you heard all of last year — when it wasn't ignored. It turns out they're middle class, slightly above the mean in education and in income.

But they represent a philosophy. And it’s libertarian. And it’s interesting. It’s got three ideas. It's against high taxes, it’s against the intrusiveness of government, and in an even larger sense it's kind of a constitutionalist idea.

There really is this notion of liberty, and that somehow the expansion of government — particularly since the liberals have taken over in the House, the Senate and the White House — has pushed taxes higher [and expanded] the reach, the power and the extent of government. And it's a kind of betrayal of the American social contract.

These people oppose America becoming a social democracy like Europe. And they like the traditional idea of more risk, more independence and less government coddling and cradling of the population.

What he said.