Defining the term "tea party" in the era of advanced decline

Well, now.  It seems the Dave Brat victory exposes some intriguing fault lines on the right side of the American political spectrum.

He got help from some big-name conservative media figures, particularly Laura Ingraham, whose appearance at a late-in-the-campaign rally held, fittingly, at Cantor's country club was an attention-getter, but it was really as grassroots a phenomenon as has been seen in modern political history.  Cantor outspent Brat overwhelmingly, and, most interestingly, a sector of the "grassroots" right one might have expected to see stepping up to the plate was curiously absent:

National tea party groups did not contribute dime one to Brat. Not Freedom Works, not Club for Growth, not the Tea Party Express, not Tea Party Patriots. They were too busy denouncing Sen. Mitch McConnell -- who has consistently voted against amnesty.

And now leaders of national Tea Party groups - a glaring oxymoron of a phrase, since the movement began by definition as a decentralized groundswell -  are scrambling to wave the flag of me-too-ism.

Though national tea-party groups were quick to claim credit for the turn of events — Tea Party Patriots president Jenny Beth Martin congratulated the “local tea-party activists who helped propel him over the top” — they did little to boost his candidacy.

(Last evening, on FNC, Andrea Tantaros guest-hosted Greta Van Susteren's show and had a rather tense exchange with Jenny Beth Martin.  The you've-really-painted-youself-into-an-interesting-corner, toots smile on Tantaros's face at the end of the segment as she thanked Martin for coming on was memorable.)

 It may be that "tea party" as a brand is running its course.  It had quickly become a vehicle for leftist caricature for various unrefined demographic groups that supposedly comprised its ranks.

What the Brat victory shows, however, is that, whatever fleetingly effective moniker you assign to it, the phenomenon of relatively non-political citizens realizing, often fairly suddenly, that America is becoming unrecognizable as the land and the idea they'd grown up in, is ongoing.  The grim truth is that there will be further deterioration which will ensure a steady supply of those giving freedom, opportunity, decency and common sense a fresh look.