I think a lot of the tea party people are relatively decent people, but they are incredibly deceived and stupid on some points. They think that all can be righted by government stopping some earmark type pork spending and cut programs for poor people. Yet they don't seem to understand that the huge run-up in government spending is related to military/intelligence and police state functions. They think that we will all of a sudden create jobs if we cut taxes, but we cut taxes massively for rich people in 2003 and this did not create jobs. meanwhile we have discriminatory trade policy where a US manufacturer can face a 30% tariff when exporting to china, but no tariff to a chinese producer exporting to the US, and massive currency manipulation to disadvantage our country.
There is a group called Citizens Against Government Waste. CAGW.org they are in the news now for their commercial against government waste. and they use the example of a bunch of chinese people in the future laughing at us. But the chinese don't engage in the deficit spending we do now. and these tea party people are encouraging more deficit spending, because they do not want to cut spending and they don't believe in doing what is needed to collect tax revenues.
Lookat the CAGW.org web site and read how they feel on issues. Nowhere does it seem that they recognize that if we want to cut government, then we must cut back the military missions. There are huge resources in American politics telling us that all will be well if we only cut government waste. Unfortunately, it is not so easy. We are on a suicide course with our military policies, our police state and our trade policies that disadvantage our own people on purpose.