“Now that the Democrats have taken over Congress and the White House,Republicans all across America have snapped out of their 8-year trance and remembered that they have a passionate loathing for wasteful government spending, centralized bureaucracy, executive overreach, reckless deficits,and the taxation that backs it all up. This suspiciously-​timed discontent has lately manifested itself in some ‘Tea Parties’ in several cities. Meant to be evocative of the Boston Tea Party, they have mostly been occasions to gather and complain and wave signs. There hasn’t been any actual rebellion, withdrawal of allegiance, or tax resistance so far as I have seen, except for the many references to ’shrugging’ or ‘going Galt.’ … Promoters of the recent ‘tea parties’ hint that the shrugging has begun, or is about to begin. Some even insist that they’re on the verge of shrugging themselves. But in all of the reports, I’ve heard a lot of talk of shrugging but so far only one credible report of anyone actually doing it.” (03/09/09)