“In lambasting the Tea Party movement for its stubborness, Firsters have silently acknowledged what for two years they had all but denied. Instead of being in fact a front for racism or opposition to abortion, the “baggers,” as they have been derisively called, are genuinely insistent on cutting spending and containing the growth of government. Everything is less complicated than it seems. Supporters of the Tea Party are who they said they were.”

Apparently it takes something more (or less) than a PhD to realize that the itemized options are in no way mutually exclusive. But since at no point do the authors come anywhere close to providing an accurate characterization of the people they are criticizing, I suppose that building a 1500+ word strawman on a non sequitur won’t add any measurable stench to the manure that they are shoveling out.