[This is a guest post by Keith Seegmiller, Republican and long time Utah resident from Cedar City, Utah. I’ve long swapped opinions with Keith, my uncle, over the years, over the kitchen table, at conventions, and in our correspondence. The opinions are his own.]

Having studied the Tea Party movement some, I’ve come to the following conclusions.

It’s a populist movement of dissatisfaction and desire for change. Though an undetermined number of people claim to believe in and support its philosophies, it has no unified, national organization or platform. Tea Party caucuses have been organized in both the House and the Senate and wield some influence there (mostly on Republicans). Three or four non-profit organizations have been formed each of which claim upwards of a million members/adherents loosely organized in smaller organizations around the country. In the last election, a number of candidates for federal office who espoused Tea Party ideals and were supported by Tea Party organizations were successful, some in unseating long-standing and respected incumbents. [cont…]