BINGO

[Martin Eden]

20. Tea Party was astroturf

Powers That Be started it, fostering a "populist" movement feeding off racism and other grievances.

Roots of rightwing extremism are deep. In tje last 100 years the wealthy have wanted to destroy FDR's New Deal and LBJ's Great Society. John Birch Society and Barry Goldwater's extremism had their day, but anti-immigrant fervor goes back centuries and along with racism against blacks. The false morailty of "conservative" Christianity is a big hook tying much of that together.

But behind it all is the age-old insatiable greed for wealth and power, hiring unscrupulous operatives to manipulate useful idiots and ignorant masses into forfeiting what little they have.