Senate Majority Leader and Nevada Democrat Sen. Harry Reid compared the tea party to the 20th century anarchist movement during a Friday interview on KNPR.
“Who is the tea party? Well, understand, when I was in school, I studied government, among other things, and prior to World War I and after World War I we had the anarchists,” Reid began. “Now they were violent — you know, some say that’s what started World War I, the anarchy moment — but they were violent. They did damage to property and they did physical damage to people.”
“The modern anarchists don’t do that — that’s the tea party,” Reid clarified. “But they have the same philosophy as the early anarchists: They do not believe in government. Anytime anything bad happens to government, that’s a victory to them. And that’s what’s happened. We have absolute gridlock created by a group of people who represent few Americans. But it makes it extremely difficult to get things done.”
It is not the first time Reid has made the comparison between the tea party and anarchists. In April, he made similar comments speaking on the Senate floor.