Moveon and the Tea Party Movement: Parallels

Via a couple of bloggers (probably Marginal Revolution and Klein [Updated: Todd Zywicki at Volokh is one]) , this interesting piece in National Journal on the Tea Party Movement's organization. It's worth reading, both in the light of organization theory and politics.

The article includes a comparison of Moveon and the Tea Party Movement, both being ground up organizations with minimal national leadership.The last two paragraphs:

One hears again, there, echoes of leftist movements. Raise consciousness. Change hearts, not just votes. Attack corruption in society, not just on Capitol Hill. In America, right-wing movements have tended to focus on taking over politics, left-wing ones on changing the culture. Like its leftist precursors, the Tea Party Patriots thinks of itself as a social movement, not a political one.
Centerless swarms are bad at transactional politics. But they may be pretty good at cultural reform. In any case, the experiment begins.