[mkramlich]

I'm pretty sure the Tea Party is an instrument of the same folks running the Repub Party. It's intent was to capture/keep a chunk of redneck voters who would otherwise be disaffected with or embarrassed by voting for Republicans, post-Bush, without losing them entirely to the Dems or some other non-controlled organization. A pretty large chunk of Republican mom-and-pop voters appear to be racists or poorly educated middle-class, for example, and the Repub leadership wanted to create a safe harbor for them to vent that was still somewhat directable. A sort of temporary but loyal opposition. They don't want to lose the guns/bible/redneck demographic permanently because they'd lose the ability to get majorities in elections. If all working middle-class and poor people in country could get behind a single party, the aristocracy/oil/military/banking interests would lose control of Congress.