The Tea Party -remember: started, funded and promoted by the likes of Dick Armey, the Koch brothers and Fox News- clearly is not concerned with the interests of average, working people. 

The Tea Party is actively supporting those who oppress them, i.e., the state-corporate power nexus whose actions (and very structure) are the roots of the problems we're dealing with today. For example, an out-of-control spending really exists in mostly one area: the military (with the addition of health care.) These could be easily fixed by slashing the military budget, and creating a public, non-profit system for the free exchange of health care. The existence of the Tea Party is the realization of the ultimate form of power: no need for social control when the population sufficiently controls itself (propaganda is quite effective when you have all the money and power!)

I think the problem with the Tea Party -and conservatives, and Libertarians, in general- is that their analysis is too restricted. You have to understand that "government" is not the primary actor in our society; it is corporations, financial insitutions, etc, through their dominance and control of the state.

This stems directly from capitalism: as a set of relations in which society is divided between a tiny, owning class and a massive, working class who have no choice but to sell their labor for survival. Abolishing private ownership of the means of production, as well as dismantling hierachical and authoritarian power structures, would significantly eradicate our problems today (climate change, poverty, oppression, alienation, etc). But again, this analysis requires that one goes beyond the fictitious "government vs. people" perspective, and instead look at the whole of society (and especially its structure and set of relationships.)

Great job Ohio YALers! Putting pressure on the speaker of the house, very nice!