Tea Parties — not that big a deal.

Lee Harris tries to analyze the Tea Parties' impending historical significance.

"Today many intelligent observers grope to discover what the Tea Party is all about and where it belongs on the Richter Scale of historical events. Does it signal the approach of a catastrophic upheaval, like the 9.0 earthquake of 2004 which sent devastating tsunamis across the Indian Ocean? Or will the Tea Party movement register only as a light quake in the 4.0 to 4.9 range, entailing “noticeable shaking of indoor items, rattling noises,” with “significant damage unlikely”?"

I tend to think the latter. The Tea Party movement does not have any new ideas, and it has few — or no — practical policy suggestions. It is merely a rag-tag conglomeration of the most rabid of conservatives pitching a fit because the Democrats are in power.

Tea Partiers say they dislike the Republican Party as much as they dislike the Democratic Party. This is a load of hogwash. Sure, they don't agree with the GOP on everything, but it seems likely this movement will collapse once the Republicans seize power (whenever that is).

This is just an unconventional grass-roots campaign against the Democratic Party. If the movement makes it into the history books at all, it will be as an interesting example of how to protest.

This isn't a Chilean earthquake, although if it were the consequences would be no less tragic. It's more a tremor that makes people stop, look, shake their head, and move right on with business as usual.