MY WASHINGTON EXAMINER COLUMN IS UP: Tea Party movement likely to have unglamorous but effective future.

The first stage of Tea Party rallies was very important. The political apparatchiks and the Big Media folks built up — quite deliberately — a sense of inevitability around the Obama machine’s agenda of big government dominance. It was unstoppable, and wildly popular, according to the conventional storyline.

The rallies proved that it wasn’t as wildly popular as all that, and inspired many people who felt — as the storyline was intended to make them feel — powerless, outnumbered, and marginalized to realize that they were none of those things. That was a vital first step, the equivalent of the kid shouting that the emperor was naked.

But rallies without follow-through are just rallies. And the Tea Party movement is now following through with the grunt work of politics: Organizing precincts, waging primary battles, registering voters, and compiling mailing lists.

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