I’m willing to chalk Doug Mainwaring’s new Washington Times op-ed up to a case of “Great Minds Think Alike,” or perhaps he simply filed away one of my blog posts from January into the back of his mind, and then forgot about it. But get a load of his opening paragraph:
On Feb. 7, 2009, the cover of Newsweek magazine proclaimed, “We Are All Socialists Now.” Since then, much has transpired, including the sale of Newsweek (the business entity) to the highest bidder for $1. Now, 1 1/2 years later, a more poignant cover story might be “We Are All Tea Partiers Now.”
Yes, it would, which is why I created this Photoshop back in January, immediately after Scott Brown won in Massachusetts:
More from Mainwaring:
The Tea Party is the leading edge of a “Great Awakening” in America. In many ways, it appears to have the force and vitality of one of the religious awakenings that have occurred throughout our nation’s history. It is more than a populist movement. It is more than a reactionary group expressing voter dissatisfaction and anger. It can’t be boiled down to election results. It will not be co-opted neatly by the Republican Party. It is something much, much bigger.
The Tea Party as the Next Great Awakening? That was the theme of an op-ed Glenn Reynolds wrote for the Washington Examiner back in February:
I attended this past weekend’s National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, and I came away feeling that I had seen something important. The Tea Party movement is part of something bigger: America’s Third Great Awakening.
America’s prior Great Awakenings, in the 18th and 19th Centuries, were religious in nature. Unimpressed with self-serving, ossified, and often corrupt religious institutions, Americans responded with a bottom-up reassertion of faith, and independence.
This time, it’s different. It’s not America’s churches and seminaries that are in trouble: It’s America’s politicians and parties. They’ve grown corrupt, venal, and out-of-touch with the values, and the people, that they’re supposed to represent. So the people, once again, are reasserting themselves.
Yes it’s true. We here at Pajamas Media live life six months into the future.
Now if only we could predict the teams and the point spread for the Super Bowl in February…
(H/T: Hot Air)
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