Glenn Beck was pushing this idea weeks ago but it’s more plausible now given the success of the tea parties, about which “Paine” is properly excited. A friend who was at an event where he spoke e-mailed me this week to scold me for sniping at him, promising that I’d like him if I just gave him a chance. I do like the idea of fiscal cons flexing their voting muscle with protests; that’s why I support the parties. What I don’t like is this guy’s habit of lapsing into rhetoric about a second revolution, legislators ignoring the people “at your peril,” and, per the letter from a Marine that he reads near the end here, the idea that “our country is under attack from an enemy within” — which isn’t the first time he’s used language about enemies and attacks to describe policy disagreements. I get that the character he’s playing obliges him to use a certain amount of revolutionary parlance, just like I get that I’ll take plenty of heat in the comments for being a squish who’s afraid to fight nutroots fire with fire, etc, but what can I tell you. That sort of rhetoric leaves me cold, and I can’t be the only one. And yes, yes, I know, I’m a RINO whom the party’s better off without anyway. No need to remind me.

One interesting detail: Note his salute to protesters past who marched in the name of green power and ending wars to save lives. He really is aiming this message at both sides of the aisle.