Charles, I have read your blog for four and a half years now, and i have always found it interesting even when I disagree with you. But you are being entirely unfair when you hold the tea parties to a standard that no other mass movement is ever held to. Every movement has its fringe elements, and I’m sure the tea parties are no exception. But the tea parties have not been “coopted to a large extent by Ron Paul nuts.” There aren’t that many paulnuts around. That’s what makes them a fringe.