The Tea Party Warrior’s Field Manual

Excerpt: In this review, I examine the online “Tea Party Warrior’s Field Manual” as a guide for conservative activists to mount nonviolent action for social change. As Gene Sharp writes in How Nonviolent Struggle Works, “Whatever the issue and whatever the scale of the conflict, nonviolent action is a technique by which people who reject passivity and submission, and who see struggle as essential, can wager their conflict without violence.” This review highlights the ways in which the Tea Party’s Field Manual can broaden our understanding of conservative resistance, while also criticizing aspects of the Manual that I find most inconsistent with the principles of nonviolence.