I always saw the tea parties as groups that were meant to do the bidding of corporations, Big Oil, agribusiness, and the wealthiest Americans. When they first emerged on the scene and I saw their connection to Americans For Prosperity, Freedom Works, the Heritage Foundation, The Chamber of Commerce, and other powerful RW organizations, I suspected that the folks who were out there hollering and disrupting democratic politicians’ town halls had no clue that they weren’t acting in their own interests. After these organizations couldn’t stop the Affordable Care Act from passing, they slid into the background and the large, televised tea party rallies came to a screeching halt. When financial reform was being debated, I expected the “grassroots” tea party groups to come out and push for it, but none of them did. One would expect that since many of the members of these groups said they were against the Wall St. bailout, they’d have been very visible and vocal in their support of Dodd/Frank. They were nowhere to be seen. At this point, I was sure that they were an astroturf operation, and that financial reform wasn’t something that the powerful RW organizations were interested in supporting.