Pareene gleefully summarizes this account of the Tea Party's toxic brand:
There is a shadowy group of malcontents in America today, plotting a grand takeover of our political institutions in order to completely remake the country according to their wishes. Despite the fact the members of this group are a small minority of the population, and an unpopular one at that, they seek to infiltrate the courts and the government at every level, in order to replace our long-standing system of law with their own extremist, undemocratic religious code. These true believers are especially dangerous because they think they're doing God's work, and you ignore them, or play down the threat they pose to America, at your own risk. This tiny band of fanatics is largely distrusted and despised by regular Americans, but a terrified media coddles them and pretends they're harmless. I am speaking, of course, of the Tea Parties, a group now officially less popular among Americans than Muslims.
Reihan, who has a different view of the "terrified media," isn't fazed. He highlights this section of the article:
The strange thing is that over the last five years, Americans have moved in an economically conservative direction: they are more likely to favor smaller government, to oppose redistribution of income and to favor private charities over government to aid the poor.
Making the case that the op-ed misses "the forest for the trees," adds Joseph Lawler:
It was never expected that the Tea Party wouldn't be divisive. If they're winning people over to a small-government point of view, though, that is news.
The Dish 