'Tea Party Anarchists?'

"Anti-government rhetoric is once again all the rage (pun intended) in the United States. Neoconservatives, indomitable Reaganites, and the Mad Tea Party all inveigh against the federal government—its taxes, its programs, its bureaucracy, its regulations. Unlike the political Left, they are not worried about domestic and international injustice, exorbitant military spending (the one portion of the national budget they would not reduce), or the diminution of civil liberties. Nonetheless, given that anti-government rhetoric, it’s worth considering whether the Mad Tea Party and the libertarian Right have anything in common with anarchism itself."

Caroline Hamilton, an Americanist, teaches at the University of Pittsburgh. Her most recently scholarly article was published by The Journal of American Studies in the Spring of 2010. She is writing a book about Alexander Hamilton.

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