In a recent interview, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) declared that the Tea Party movement is unsustainable and will eventually "die out." What the senator fails to realize (or at least won't admit publicly) is that successful grassroots efforts such as the Tea Party movement end when their goal has been achieved and it is the political careers of so-called moderate Republicans such as Senator Graham that are unsustainable.

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"The problem with the Tea Party, I think it's just unsustainable because they can never come up with a coherent vision for governing the country," Mr. Graham told the New York Times Magazine. (source) But it is not those who are part of the Tea Party movement who will govern or need to come up with a vision for governing. Those tasks fall to those who campaign for the opportunity to govern, people like Senator Graham.

Obviously negative reactions from his party and his constituents over his bipartisan efforts on energy and immigration have Senator Graham playing defense. But to claim it is the voters, or groups of voters, who must have the vision for governing while he abdicates that responsibility to liberal Democrats is indefensible.

I agree with Mr. Graham that what we now know as the Tea Party movement will eventually end. But it will end when it has successfully completed what all those involved set out to do - send a strong message to our elected officials that we the people demand fiscal responsibility from our government and that we are Taxed Enough Already.

And that is a much more sustainable ideal that the middle-of-the-road, play-along-to-get-along, political maneuvering of Republicans-in-Name-Only such as Senator Lindsey Graham.