The Tea Party, Foreign Policy, and the Politics of Real Change

By Justin Raimondo

I’ve spent more than a few columns predicting that the so-called tea partiers – the grassroots populist movement that has our liberal elites in a frothy-mouthed lather – will be logically led to call for major cuts in military spending – and, by the sheer logic of their anti-spending, “anti-government” position, eventually come to challenge our foreign policy of global intervention. The other day, as I listened to a fascinating panel discussion on Warren Olney‘s KCRW radio show To the Point on defense spending and deficit reduction, I had the distinct pleasure of hearing my prediction come true – a lot sooner, I have to admit, than I ever imagined.


The participants were Hendrik Hertzberg of the New Yorker, William Hartung of the New America Foundation, Stephen J. Walt, a professor of foreign affairs at the Kennedy School of Government and author of The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, and Chris Littleton, co-founder of the Ohio Liberty Council and a committed member of the “Tea Party” movement. Go here to listen.