Disabuse yourself of the notion that there is any such thing as the "Tea Party"

[ThomWV]

A year ago, two years ago, some very wealthy men put out a paltry amount of money to haul busloads of firebrands to town meetings and a few rallies around the country. They did this for a few months and have been reaping the rewards ever since.

You could not find a bus-load of tea-partiers anywhere in the country today. You couldn't find them today, this week, or this month. There is no Tea Party. It is just an idea brought into existence with money and once the video clips were safely filed away for future use there was no need for the people any more. And what is this myth of a Tea Party good for? Well, it serves several functions. First and foremost it provides cover for Republican politicians to come out with the most outrageous of proposals. They take their direction directly from the Koch brothers or their likes and then claim that their decisions and votes simply reflect the desires of their Tea Party constituents. Then they show a year-old film clip of a Tea Party rally to back up their claim. The second purpose the myth of the Tea Party is simpler. It acts as a vow of fidelity to vote for the most right wing Republican on the ticket - no matter what, its still a Republican.

So the myth of the Tea Party continues, but only because it is useful to Republican over-lords. But as far as the actual Tea Party goes, there really is no such thing.