The Kentucky Democrat

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach doesn't get it. I met Rabbi Boteach back when I lived in Chicago.

Taken aback, I responded that to my knowledge the tea party is focused simply on more limited government and the reduction of government spending. I didn't know racism was part of the platform, I said. But he was adamant that the tea party's small-government rhetoric was an attack on low-income minorities.

Lost in the debate about the morality of the tea party is any discussion about its underpinnings in human nature.

The principle purpose of government is to provide the optimal conditions through which human beings can acquire their most important necessities -- the highest of which is dignity.

While governments provide many essentials for their citizens, from law and order to social services, from good roads to education, the one human essential that government cannot provide is human dignity.[...]

My progressive friends speak to me about how a compassionate society takes care of its citizens. That is true. But it must also take care to ensure that it never robs its citizens of the nobility of spirit that is the birthright of every human being.

The tea party is far from perfect. But in emphasizing self-reliance, it taps into a hidden human desire to live a life crowned with self-esteem.

Sorry but trying to tell us that critics of the tea party movement doesn't understand is beyond the means to even describe.