Funny wasn’t it that people who voted for Bush twice (if you recall, the same guy who turned surpluses into record deficits by cutting taxes, starting a war, adding a new entitlement program for prescription drugs, and growing government more than any president since Nixon) suddenly starting to obsess about the national debt and “all the spending.” Must have been a sudden come to fiscal Jesus moment and not some other reason. The various signs saying things like “Obama is the master and taxpayers are the n—gers” or with pictures of Obama eating a banana and swinging from a vine were totally about all the spending, man.

I get that there’s always been a small, niche segment of the GOP voting base that is more libertarian than right wing and believes in what I find an antiquated and unhelpful vision of what our country should be but respect as at least intellectually honest and principled and supported by thoughtful people with whom I disagree (see, eg, RMLHoos, JoeyWahoo, maybe yourself too). But to claim that tiny sliver of the voting public was behind the atroturf, Fox News and Glenn Beck sponsored Tea Party rally is pretty laughable. Sure, some of those folks were involved but the crowds I witnessed in DC seemed to be more old white people throwing a visceral temper tantrum over Obama being president.