I am hoping (hoping, not expecting) that with the example given by Scott Walker, as IDP mentioned, perhaps some Republicans will start to act more decisively in the realization that the country as a whole is threatened in a way it never has been before. Relating it to individual action, you always hear stories about someone who "didn't know I had it in me" when they do something bold and decisive, such as rescuing someone from a burning building. What would be unthinkable to them under normal circumstances they suddenly find themselves doing almost automatically. Fight or flight response, I guess.
You know the common theme in movies and books, the sort of wimpy guy who ultimately redeems himself when up against the wall. I feel like we are in that moment as a country, and I think that explains the Tea Party phenomenon. These are a bunch of mild mannered people, the types who probably had always gone out of their way to keep their opinions to themselves, who probably never engaged in any sort of activism before in their lives, but it suddenly crystallized just what sort of threat is afoot and they reacted against the threat just like the ordinary person who runs into a burning house.
