Alceste
Vagabond
I still don't get what the purpose of the Tea Party being a Republican propaganda arm is. Most Tea Partiers (at least the ones I know about) are either too extreme for the Republican Party, or so extreme that it is not in the benefit of the Party to associate with them. If anything, having a supposedly libertarian Tea Party running candidates around will split the economic rightist vote.
Are the Republicans intentionally trying to lose the next elections, perhaps so that the blame for the disaster they sent rolling in the 1980s will be shared on the winning democrats? After all, with the shortsighted American public, anyone who's around when something bad happens will get the blame, regardless of who caused it. That's why Bush is blamed for imitating Reagan's horrible economic policies, whereas Reagan is worshiped as a Saint.
I agree with your impressions. The tea party, which began as an arms-length Republican strategy to capitalize on feelings of disempowerment and racism in their base after the election, has grown into a political movement with its own momentum. The tea party is now putting forward extremely crazy, racist, religious extremist, conspiracy nut, Ayn Rand fanatic candidates for Republican primaries - and winning - in many districts.
This strategy seems to be a great gift for the Democrats - they no longer have to even pretend to have progressive inclinations to win over all those coveted moderate independents in swing states. They only have to appear slightly rational, fair-minded and informed and they'll look like the far better choice.