"Getting Ready For The Big Show"

As CPAC gets underway, it's no secret that the Tea Party movement is a mess of contradictions and ideological incoherence. This has been the case from its beginning, which was rooted in two hypocrisies: motivation synchronized solely with Inauguration Day 2009, and action catalyzed by a historically evocative slogan that came from the East Coast "media elite." Important issues like the bailouts and Federal Reserve aside, this is a movement that would be easy to dismiss as amateurish or irrelevant. Profiles like this show it to be anything but the latter:

Some have gone so far as to stock up on ammunition, gold and survival food in anticipation of the worst. ... It is a sprawling rebellion, but running through it is a narrative of impending tyranny. This narrative permeates Tea Party Web sites, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and YouTube videos. ... WorldNetDaily.com trumpets "exclusives" reporting that the Army is seeking "Internment/Resettlement" specialists. On ResistNet.com, bloggers warn that Mr. Obama is trying to convert Interpol, the international police organization, into his personal police force. They call on "fellow Patriots" to "grab their guns." Mr. Beck frequently echoes Patriot rhetoric, discussing the possible arrival of a "New World Order" and arguing that Mr. Obama is using a strategy of manufactured crisis to destroy the economy and pave the way for dictatorship. At recent Tea Party events around the country, these concerns surfaced repeatedly. ... And in Indiana, Richard Behney, a Republican Senate candidate, told Tea Party supporters what he would do if the 2010 elections did not produce results to his liking: "I'm cleaning my guns and getting ready for the big show. And I'm serious about that, and I bet you are, too." ... Mrs. Stout said she has begun to contemplate the possibility of "another civil war." It is her deepest fear, she said. Yet she believes the stakes are that high. Basic freedoms are threatened, she said. Economic collapse, food shortages and civil unrest all seem imminent. "I don't see us being the ones to start it, but I would give up my life for my country," Mrs. Stout said. She paused, considering her next words. "Peaceful means," she continued, "are the best way of going about it. But sometimes you are not given a choice."

Apocalyptic and dystopia-oriented movements and cults share an intrinsic need: in order to maintain momentum and internal faith, ultimately there must be validation in actual events. Without a "big show," the leaders are discredited and the movement collapses. Manson took his followers to Death Valley to wait out the final war between whites and blacks, after which he would rule what was left. When the war didn't happen on schedule, he tried to move things along. But there is more at stake than movement momentum or leadership credibility. Without validation in events, reality comes crashing down on individual members -- many of whose identities and perceptions of self-worth have become inextricably linked with the movement and its unique worldview.

The result is an urgent underlying need for "something" to happen, either as a distraction from somnolent reality's betrayal, as a trigger for something larger, or as an end in itself. Iran would do nicely, and it's not a coincidence that many Tea-friendly media entities and public figures, including Sarah Palin, also seem obsessed with Iran.

But if in a year or two the internment camps still haven't opened or civil war gets preempted by a new season of American Idol, what happens then? Does this seem like the sort of movement that would be content to fade out or, in its own way, line up in the jungle for cups of laced punch? Or will it decide that the revolution, along with its own relevance, needs a little help?