On the Modern Tea Party

I don't think the modern Tea Party will be remembered well by historians.
I gave my students excerpts from an article on the uses of Tea Party rhetoric from the 1970s to today, and asked them if they see a similarity between the original Tea Party and the modern version.  They posted responses on a Moodle forum prior to writing a think piece ...
I had three students out of 64 argue that there was some similarity, but the vast majority thought the modern day folks are either selfish or ignorant (and I'm using euphemisms.)  Actually, "idiotic" and "childish" turned up a lot ...

I guess the younger generation isn't watching Fox News.

One of my favorite responses was written by a student who formats his writing like a Puritan elder, for some reason:

"No they are not correct. The following evidence shows their application is completely illogical.

fact 1) American revolution happened mainly because of directly taxing colonists
fact 2) the taxes were caused by the French-Indian War
fact 3) Britain was envolved in the French-Indian War
 
Point1) Britain was the cause for the direct taxation

fact 1) the modern day tea party activists are mad because of heavy taxes
fact 2) clinton left a $4,000 billion dollar budget surplus economy
fact 3) now we're in debt
 
point 2) Bush caused the huge debt

point 1) colonists wanted to get rid of the cause of taxation: Britain
point 2) Bush caused the huge debt
 
CONCLUSION: If the modern-day tea party activists are really applying their beliefs from the original tea party, then they would be trying to get rid of the cause of the modern day taxation:  Bush."