Success breeds contempt, and the Tea Party movement now has its pockets full of both. In that the Tea Parties appear to be a response to an overreaching federal government, it was certainly predictable that their sudden influence on the body politic would be challenged with an equal or greater intensity by the forces seeking an expansion of big government authority. Heeding the clarion call emanating from the organized Left for demonizing, dishonesty, and disinformation about the Tea Party, a deliberate and desperate attempt to disperse the citizen-led grassroots movement, all of the minions of chaos have obediently begun to converge.

Last week, I reported about one anarchist website firing up its organizing machine to stage counterdemonstrations during the Tea Party’s April 15^th rallies. My region of the country is well acquainted with the anarchists work, having witnessed the embarrassing display of lawlessness and destruction they unleashed on the beautiful Emerald City of Seattle during the World Trade Organization ministerial conference in 1999.

Now, joining the anarchists in the effort to derail a diverse and legitimate Tea Party movement is a timid little group, “Crash the Tea Party.” The group claims to represent a phantom majority that has yet to show up in public opinion polls, and may have ancillary ties to the notorious pan-Northwest conclave of anarchists in Oregon and Washington state.

What is the goal of “Crash the Tea Party?” It’s front and center on the relatively Spartan home page of their website. Aside from a donation button, their misleading manifesto of misinformation is there for all to see:

WHO WE ARE: A nationwide network of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who are sick and tired of that loose affiliation of racists, homophobes, and morons; who constitute the fake grass-roots movement that calls itself “The Tea Party.”

WHAT WE WANT: To dismantle and demolish the Tea Party by any non-violent means necessary.

HOW WE WILL SUCCEED: By infiltrating the Tea Party itself! In an effort to propagate their pre-existing propensity for paranoia and suspicion…We have already sat quietly in the meetings and observed their rallies.

Whenever possible we will act on behalf of the Tea Party in ways which exaggerate their least appealing qualities (misspelled protest signs, wild claims in TV interviews, etc.) to further distance them from mainstream America and damage the public’s opinion of them. We will also use the inside information that we have gained in order to disrupt and derail their plans.

“Nationwide network?” Really? As of this post, the site had generated a membership of 32. Far from being a national association of wannabe radicals, that’s not even enough leeching undergrads to make an undersized flash mob.

Of course, the very premise of the current smear strategy against the Tea Party is an example of why we should reinstitute logic course requirements in our high school curriculums. If Tea Parties are so outrageously extreme, exhibiting hatred toward so many different groups, why would it even be necessary to spoof that behavior? When I want to take a picture of a gorilla, I can reliably find one at the zoo, I don’t have to send a stooge in with a furry suit to jump in the enclosure. If Tea Parties are akin to Klan rallies or meetings of the John Birch Society then there’s no need for the elaborate frame-up, just bring a video camera and let it roll. But even subpar agent provocateurs such as these are artists of deception, not exaggeration; they manufacture negative impressions that would not otherwise be made if it were not for their presence.

These merchants of confusion were also present during the early days of the Tea Parties, when the Northwest’s own Liberty Belle – who many believe to be the originator of Tea Party sentiment – began organizing rallies at Seattle’s Westlake Square to protest the failed stimulus spending package. In most cases their bark was worse than their bite. After talking tough for days on their personal blogs in preparation for last year’s April 15^th rallies, they implemented their ingenious infiltration strategy. From my position at the edge of the crowd I witnessed a trio of would-be sleeper agents milling about timidly.

One of the two males among them carried a sign covered with a black garbage sack, and after the three of them had traded whispered remarks and snide gestures for an embarrassing period of time, he pulled off the bag. Although my memory is too foggy to recall what the sign said, only that it fell into the category of extreme right-wing hate. He waded into the crowd, holding his handmade propaganda tool high above the heads of the audience around him.

What is crystal clear from my recollection was the response by the crowd. There was no pushing, shoving, yelling, or tearing apart of the agitator or his signage, and yet the Tea Partiers around him were acutely aware of the intent of this young man and how to deal with it effectively. Slowly, the men near him who also had signs closed in around him. Without even overtly acknowledging the stray element in their midst, the group positioned their own signs to shield the offensive placard from view, sealing him off from the rest of the crowd as antibodies might circle the source of bodily infection.

Of course, “Crash the Tea Party,” and its creator who goes by the handle “MadHatter” and whose avatar if the Guy Fawkes mask popularized by the celluloid epic of violent anarchy, V for Vendetta, are a nuisance just like the meek example I cited. Their Romper Room-variety chaos is just the kind of situation real domestic terrorists seek, an environment teeming with confrontation that provides a useful veil of confusion in which evildoers can operate.

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Related articles:

Michelle Malkin | Crash course: Your illustrated guide to the Tea Party saboteurs

Hot Air | Too dumb to check: Lefties publicly advertising plans to frame tea partiers as racist

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