Movements like these aren’t easy to control. If a citizen is motivated by anger that the government is trying to control his life, he isn’t likely to easily accept the idea that some other person or institution is trying to control him, either. Some of today’s insurgents are angry at bank bailouts, some at the government takeover of auto companies, some at the prospect of a bigger government role in health care — but the unifying characteristic is that they are angry at any kind of central control at all. Republicans who think they can harness Tea Party Patriots and their anger may be in for a rude surprise of their own.

It isn’t really ideological. Perot followers were often thought to be conservatives, but one of their most powerful motivating forces was antipathy to free trade — a classically conservative idea. Similarly, it’s doubtful now that many of those senior citizens on the buses want their Medicare coverage turned into a voucher program, as some conservatives suggest, or share the view of many economic conservatives that the country benefits overall from immigration.