“…yet we crave the virtuosity of the Satriani elite.”

Smitty makes an excellent metaphor to describe the difficulty of the Tea Party and the Conservative blogsophere vis-a-vis the GOP establishment and primary field.

Never forget that the Ramones, and the Sex Pistols, and the Clash, and the Dead Boys, and everyone else wanted to sell records. They didn’t want to end up as cult bands whose albumss would be hunted for by nerds like me at Record & Tape Traders. The stipulation that every band with more than 50 fans had “sold out” became de rigeur in the hardcore 80’s. First-generation Punk laughed at that idea.

And like first-generation Punk bands, the first generation of Tea Party candidates busted in more on sensation and zeitgeist than on substance. That’s why Christine O’Donnel and Sharron Angle weren’t good candidates. That’s why Rand Paul stuck his foot in his mouth on the question of the Civil Rights Act. That’s why the current GOP field is so unsatifying. The ones that are savvy pols (Gingrich, Romney, maybe Santorum) aren’t Tea Party, and the ones that are Tea Party (Bachmann, Paul) aren’t electable. Because the Tea Party has yet to produce its Sonic Youth.