'Tea partiers' more wacky mavericks than extremist threat

I part ways with the tea party on how to solve the problem. They want only to slash government. I'd be willing to raise taxes as part of the deal.

But those are conventional disagreements that citizens can have in a civil way. Judging by some portrayals of the tea party, one would think it posed a threat to the community.

Commentators on MSNBC and elsewhere have called the movement racist and likened it to the Klan. Such criticisms gained strength after two African American congressmen said demonstrators shouted racial epithets at them at the Capitol a month ago. A New York Times poll found that 52 percent of tea party supporters believed that too much has been made of blacks' problems.

Perhaps people were concealing their true views, but I didn't see evidence of racism at Thursday's rally. A sign read: "Not prejudiced. Not racist. Not violent. Not disenfranchised. Not silent anymore."

Paul Butterfield, 48, an engineer from Ontario, N.Y., said: "We've achieved equal rights for blacks, equal rights for women, equal rights for gays. But creating a welfare state is a step backward."

Although united in their hostility to big government, the protesters were ideologically varied.

At one end of the spectrum, a purist libertarian wanted to abolish public schools. At the other, a 24-year-old Internet marketing company owner with a spiked mohawk hairstyle strongly opposed the health-care bill but noted, "I love Medicare. That takes care of my grandparents."

Many expressed nuanced positions.

When I asked him why he was there, Robert Cressy, 67, a Rockville investment executive, launched into a detailed, numbers-packed analysis of federal debt-growth forecasts.

"We are going toward bankruptcy," Cressy said. "We are on the road to be Greece and California."

Nevertheless, he said he supported the initial bank bailouts, despite their high cost, because they were necessary to stabilize the financial system.

Some participants had far-out views. I heard proposals to repeal the progressive income tax, abolish the Federal Reserve Board and privatize the U.S. Postal Service.

Michael Engels, 33, a D.C. firefighter who lives in Easton, Md., said he thought Social Security was unconstitutional. But like others, he drew the line at civil disobedience and violence.

"I don't think you'll see people fighting in the streets," Engels said. "I would pray to God that that doesn't happen."

The tea party has been called an heir of Alabama's segregationist governor George Wallace. It certainly shares his anti-government worldview, if not his aggressive racism.

But I think other comparisons are also apt. Its fervent opposition to deficits is reminiscent of another maverick politician, Texas billionaire Ross Perot. And throw in a dose of 1960s Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman, wearing a three-cornered hat.