There was an article in the NY Times yesterday on the right wingers lining up to challenge Lindsey Graham in the South Carolina GOP primary next year.  Here are a few reader comments:

There is considerable empirical evidence across the country that Tea Party candidates in general take the attitude that their way is right–and everyone else is wrong, or even evil. There is also considerable empirical evidence that Tea Party office holders and activists oppose any compromise with Democrats in general, or President Obama in particular. You may choose to characterize that as taking a “principled” stand. You may also choose to characterize the Tea Party’s threats to shut down the government or plunge the country into default as a much needed “challenge to the status quo.” I would characterize it as petulant, extreme and destructive to the political fabric of the United States.

Also:

The far left has no significant role in the US. They don’t hold up negotiations on the debt ceiling, they don’t go after people who have compromised with republicans. They are toothless. The far right does, to the detriment of the Republicans, and that is why they get coverage. The news does not report everyone’s opinions, only those of the people that have power.

And finally:

It occurs to me that the Tea Party, with all its insistence on limited government, actually believes in no functioning government at all. They believe in anarchy, wrought of intransigence. Indeed, while they profess an adoring love of our Constitution, they are actually wishing for a totalitarian system in which no one but they are allowed to have a voice. They are the anti-Constitution party, in which even the most extreme right-wingers like Graham are seen as “dangerous,” when they cautiously attempt to do what they were elected to do — and what the Constitution demands of them; govern, compromise and act like rational adults.