the educational (or if you prefer "educational") aspect of teaparty-type politics is pretty interesting and all things equal admirable. glenn beck is running through the founders with various biographers and so on, or going clause by clause through the constitution. everywhere people are taking classes on the founding documents and founding figures. now of course there is a particular ideological slant, but i think this "return" is also, in fact, a compelling critique of leftism, if one actually does have any affinity or commitment to the framers' frame. it is a god contrast for one thing to the cosmopolitanism or internationalism of an obama/kerry/gore-type politics, though it also has a universalistic undertow of course. at the least it makes or ought to make everyone aware that the ever-growing government is not self-evidently desirable.