Self-aggrandizement at the expense of a greater cause - particularly one characterized largely by voluntarism or charity - has been the bane of people of good will throughout history. For as long as humans have existed on this planet every act of selflessness has been countered by one of selfishness. For every hero there is a coward. For every Nathan Hale there is a Benedict Arnold.

Historically, some of the worst expressions of this kind of behavior could be found in scurrilous and dastardly actions of war profiteers and black marketeers. For example, during the First World War, Major General Smedley Butler (yes, that’s his real name) wrote a book titled War is a Racket in which he leveled scathing criticism of American companies that willfully sold outdated, malfunctioning and often completely useless equipment to the War Department at obscene profits - in some cases, as high as 1700%.

As a student of naval history in general and the Confederate Navy in particular, I was particularly struck by an account I read of the battle between CSS Alabama (a commerce raider built and outfitted for the Confederates by Great Britain) and USS Kearsarge (a sloop-of-war dispatched by the US Navy to seek out and destroy Alabama) which took place off the coast of Cherbourg, France on June 19, 1864.

At some point in time during the battle a shell from one of Kearsarge’s Dahlgrens lodged in the sternpost of the Confederate vessel but did not explode as it was supposed to. Had it done so, the battle would have been over. Later investigation determined that the shell was filled with black sand instead of gunpowder. The munitions manufacturer had effectively ripped off Uncle Sam to the tune of God-only-knows how much money. I wonder how many Union soldiers and sailors died because of this kind of scumbaggery.

I’m bringing all of this history up because, as I observed elsewhere in the person of Professor Roland Cafferty, for whom the study of history is the study of human nature in action, nothing is ever really new under the sun. Those who have eyes to see it have seen it before. Those who have not such vision can be depended upon to wail and lament their blindness as if it actually were vision.

Thus the tragedy in San Antonio - a tragedy that I have little doubt is playing itself out in countless venues nationwide.

Matt Perdue, a self-employed computer consultant, looked like “Gen. Ulysses Grant with a bad case of heartburn,” said Julia Hayden, SATP’s media representative.

“He started challenging people,” Hayden said. “He said, ‘No, I can do this. You just have to know the right strings to pull.’”

Sure enough, Perdue took charge of the rally and helped make it a success. The Alamo Plaza gathering, hosted by Fox News talk-show host Glenn Beck and rock guitarist Ted Nugent, drew an estimated 5,000 people and garnered considerable media attention.

SATP members credit Perdue, 50, for making that triumph possible.

But Hayden and others say he subsequently hijacked — and came close to shattering — the local movement.

Within months of the Alamo Plaza rally, he became president of the group, allegedly antagonized visiting tea party activists at a statewide conference when they refused to share their e-mail lists with him, accused SATP treasurer Gail Kaciuba — an accounting professor at St. Mary’s University — of mishandling the group’s finances, and fired off a series of scathing e-mails at real or perceived enemies in the movement.

Associates say they lost access to the group’s Web site after board members asked Perdue to step down in October, and that he walked away with the organization’s contact list.

Perdue quickly created a new, for-profit company called Tea Party Support and planned a huge event that would dwarf anything undertaken by SATP: a three-day conference, dubbed the National Conservative Symposium, that would feature a dream team of conservative icons: former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, TV host Sean Hannity, author and blogger Michelle Malkin and radio host Laura Ingraham.

Gov. Rick Perry also had committed to appear at the conference, to introduce Palin.

The San Antonio event would have been strikingly similar to a controversial Tea Party Nation convention happening in Nashville, Tenn., this weekend. As with the Nashville summit, the tickets prices were high ($749 for a full weekend package in San Antonio) and the star power was undeniable.

But within a month of its attention-grabbing December announcement, the San Antonio summit collapsed, with Perdue blaming its cancellation on Jennifer Ramirez-Jasiczek, an event planner he accused of improperly diverting Tea Party Support funds to her own personal PayPal account.

Once upon a time - as close as a year ago - I still held out hope that our national course could be turned around, that we as a nation would have the courage of our collective American conviction to utter a heartfelt  “mea maxima culpa” and return to the principles upon which our republic was founded. I held out hope that a political metanoia would impel us to struggle back up the craggy hill to once more reach that Shining City Reagan spoke about.

But the more I look around me, the more I believe it is no longer possible. Even the once noble Tea Party movement is quickly becoming compromised by third-party fanatics (i.e., Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly) and greedy egotists - all of them self-serving and too few of them truly sacrificial patriots.

The tragedy of the San Antonio Tea Party is merely representative of what appears to be happening nationwide. I’ve seen it here in New Jersey and will spare you the gory details.

Reportedly, in return for happily chirping at the recent Tea Party convention in Nashville, Sarah Palin received the tidy sum of $100,000. Not bad for forty minutes’ worth of hot air, huh? Thing is, in the wake of her recent book tour and her recently inked contract with FOX News, she could just as easily have declined any fee except, perhaps, her travel expenses. This, in turn would make it financially easier for both the event organizers and the attendees.

At the event planned for San Antonio, the organizers arranged for the likes of Sean Hannity and other high-profile “conservatives” to speak - for substantial fees, of course, because we all know how financially down on his luck Hannity is these days.

Although Palin, Hannity and any of the other big names who have appeared at nationally prominent Tea Parties could easily waive their speaking fees for the benefit of the greater cause of saving the republic, it does not appear they are doing so. It’s understandable, I suppose. After all, tens - and in some cases, hundreds - of thousands of dollars represent too rich a paycheck to pass up for an hour’s worth of pandering to the patriotic impulses of an adoring crowd. To be sure, the nation is on the verge of a second Great Depression, but who cares? These people are fervent patriots and willing to sacrifice a month’s rent for the chance of glimpsing their favorite political idol or even (gasp!) touching them.

And, in spite of all this,  so many of you wonder why I have become so trenchantly cynical.

The Tea Party movement is in peril of becoming hijacked by mini-Glenn Becks and mini-Matt Perdues. It would be a national tragedy if a majority of imbeciles in the Tea Party goad the likes of Sarah Palin into running for President either in a disastrously self-destructive Republican primary or, worse yet, on on a third party ticket, thereby splitting the Republican vote just as Teddy Roosevelt did a hundred years ago.

I bear no ill will toward Mrs. Palin. As far as I can see, she is a decent person and a patriotic American. She carries her own crosses just as we carry ours and her recent business-oriented career decisions make perfect sense. She ever and always continues to rise above the calumny and vilification hurled in her direction and for this alone I salute her courage and perseverance. That said…Sarah Palin is NOT ready for political prime time and if you think she is, I have the unfortunate responsibility to advise you that you are an imbecile.

If unchecked, self-aggrandizement will become the mechanism of suicide for the Tea Party movement and, ultimately, the United States. If this happens, it’s all over, folks. At that point, you will be obliged to kiss the republic farewell and say hello to civil war.