I would too except for the political pov of most of the mass media outlets. If you look at public opinion polls about debt, taxes, spending, and fiscal control... the TP is absolutely mainstream. If you see a public opinion poll about the "Tea Party" approval... you'll see them in the 30-40% range.
The first reaction of the left was to think that they were radicals on budgetary issues. If you remember, that was their first vane of attack after trying unsuccessfully to ignore and dismiss the movement. They quickly realized a problem... the TP was very mainstream on gov't spending/taxation issues. Attacking their fiscal positions was just making them stronger. So they turned to what amounts to false propaganda. They have accentuated the non-economic issues since many of these dedicated fiscal conservatives were also social traditionalists. They have used "words" like "extremists" as well as the worn out liberal lies about throwing grandma out into the street.
In short, the polling data proves that they have been very effective in demonizing the TP with false propaganda.
If this continues on... the TP will be 100% in the right. But the American people will never hear their case with clarity through the media. Ask yourself, has even Fox and other supposed conservative outlets majored on the fact that there are no real cuts in any of these proposals? In the meantime, every form of left wing demagogury known will get repeated.
Unless the TP is willing to rachet up a public marketing campaign to directly explain their side of things... they won't win the PR battle if this continues.
