And the Tea Baggers of today share much with the Yippies of yore.

The genius of Hoffman and Rubin and the anarchic Yippies circa 1968 was that they understood how to manipulate the core symbols of America to create outrage among their opposition and draw attention to their cause.  Their fringe behavior offended the majority but drew the sympathies of a broad base of supporters - even people who were not willing to paint their faces and throw excrement at police, opposed the Vietnam War and sympathized at some level with the generational struggle that the Yippies symbolized.

I'm not writing this to rehash whether the Yippies' means were proper or what the meaning of all that stuff was.  I am writing to draw what I see is a remarkable parallel between the guerilla strategies that the Yippie's crudely implemented and the Teabaggers' ability to grab media attention that is wildly disproportionate to the actual support they enjoy.  The Washington Post talked about "scores" of Teabaggers at yesterday's rally.  The Chicago Tribune and the local tv stations here in Chicago covered the Tea Party rally of 1,500 like it was some million man march.  The polls put Teabag support at 18% - a number which, I believe, includes that penumbra of sympathizers who are drawn to the symbolism of the tea parties but are not quite prepared to carry posters depicting President Obama as an orangutan.

The right was quick to appropriate the tools of media manipulation that the left had pioneered during the anti-war years.  "The Selling of a President" by Joe McGinness is a classic about how Nixon's campaign repackaged Richard Nixon into commodity that consumers actually wanted to buy.  Central to that effort was his appeal to the fears and anxieties of the Silent Majority - fears that had been stoked by the crazy yippies and everyone else on the left.   The right took off from there - Ronald Reagan and his brilliant media imaging ("Morning in America"), Lee Atwater and Willie Horton, Karl Rove and his exploitation of the born agains and the southerners and all that crap.  All of these strategies were refined variations on the central insight that the yippies, and of course many others on the left, had. 

Desecrating the core symbols of our democracy - wearing an American flag shirt, calling police pigs, rioting at the Chicago Democratic convention, smoking dope in public, free love, crazy rock music - will guaranty you media attention.  It seems like a given now but it was news then; nobody had done it before.  And of course the converse will work as well.  Rabidly defending those very same symbols - literally wrapping yourself in the flag, proclaiming undying love for the "troops" (while refusing to fund VA benefits), flaunting your purity (while your teenage daughter gets knocked up), disrupting the Florida recount and town hall meetings in the name of democracy - will also assure you center stage in the media spotlight.

The bonus for the tea baggers is that, because they loudly proclaim their patriotism and their love of the constitution, that coverage will be uncritical.  They have used the disruptive tactics pioneered by the left to create a new right media sensation.  Sarah Palin welcomed all the "patriots" at yesterday's rally.  She might not be bright but she is smart enough to zero in on the phrases and images that rally her base and infuriate her opponents.  Abbie Hoffman in heels.

And now I find myself in the position of my elders in the late 60's.  Defending the established political order against the rude and crude attacks of the insurgents.  So here's the dumb question - why doesn't it look like we're having fun.  The yippies were about nothing if not fun.  The teabaggers, as ill-informed and misconceived as they are, are also having fun.

We're the establishment now.  Our hair is gray.  I've got a paunch.  I hate whining about how unfair it is that the teabaggers are getting this fawning coverage.  On the other hand, I love Jon Stewart and Bill Maher and Colbert and Anthony Weiner and Alan Grayson, folks that have a trace of that anarchic spirit that celebrate what's great and cool about our politics.  And the blogs that also have regenerated that old energy during that last 6-7 years - turning around congress during the Bush years and being a central force in electing a president who has the hallmarks of greatness, notwithstanding quibbles at the margins for not being progressive enough. 

Ultimately we have the satisfaction of knowing that the teabaggers will be a footnote to history, kind of like the Yippies were.  A phenomenon that is very much of the moment, but one that had a much greater impression during its time than it will have on the overall course of events.