Actual armed violence and criminal acts against authority would shatter the conservative movement, worse and for longer than the violent movements that came out of Viet Nam war protests damaged liberalism.

The tea-party protesters still fail at symbolism. They're symbolically reenacting an activity that they themselves would characterize as terrorism if it wasn't done by our founding fathers 200-odd years ago. They're doing it in a way that bears none of the risk that the original Tea Act protesters had to bear (who were law-abiding citizens with day jobs).