The enemies faced by the Tea Party - government debt and the corruption that accompanies it - are not unlike enemy of Tolkien's Lord of the Ring series. In 1954, the New York Times offered this summation of the twisted evil in Tolkien's tale:
All Quests are concerned with some numinous Object, the Waters of Life, the Grail, buried treasure etc.; normally this is a good Object which it is the Hero's task to find or to rescue from the Enemy, but the Ring of Mr. Tolkien's story was made by the Enemy and is so dangerous that even the good cannot use it without being corrupted.In the Lord of the Rings, many were corrupted by the ring. Likewise, many who've gone to Washington DC vowing to fight debt and deficits have come to embrace the corrupt influence of what they once sought to abolish.
Perhaps Senator McCain is right to compare Tea Party fiscal conservatives to Hobbits. In Tolkien's books, the hero was a Hobbit. My question is, can today's Tea Party Hobbits remain as true in their struggle as Frodo was in Tolkien's series?