Yet again, the Brits know us much better than our own media does..

Thanks to neo-neocon for Finally: a fair depiction of the Tea Party movement

She simply points to Tea Party insurgents prepare to seize power in 2012
and figures (rightly) that it says it all.

Not feeling bound by such a restriction, I'm gonna quote from it a bit:

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First they were ignored. Then they were derided as the tools of Big Money. Then they were branded as racists, the unhinged, the unwashed, the paranoid, the subversive and the ignorant - or some combination thereof.
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TheTea Party has often been portrayed as a fringe group within the Republican party or a support network for Palin.

Dig deep and you will find that it is neither. There is, of course, a problem with the word "it". Although the Tea Party is referred to as a single entity, it is really a loose conglomeration of some national organisation and a plethora of groups formed in local neighbourhoods all over America. Standing for Taxed Enough Already, it took its inspiration from the 1773 Boston Tea Party protest against British colonialists.
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For all the talk of how the Tea Party will help the Democrats by splitting the Republican vote, the first five of those states are highly likely to result in Republican/Tea Party wins, Nevada is in the balance and only Delaware looks like an uphill struggle. Increased conservative turnout and the energy generated by the Tea Party is likely to punish Democrats disproportionately.

The reaction to O'Donnell's win may yet lift her close to victory. No candidate since Palin has been ridiculed and lampooned as she has, mainly for Christian conservative views she expressed a decade or more ago. She has also been castigated for having been in debt and taking years to pay university bills.

This patronizing condescension sits uneasily with ordinary Americans, one in seven of whom are now officially poor and most of whom have at one time or another struggled to pay the bills. Populism is a key strain in the Tea Party. Republican elites beware.
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To neo's post, commenter Darrell nailed it with:

As usual we need to go to the UK for fair articles on current events, pretty rich irony considering what the original tea party was about :)
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