Plutocrats Are Playing Tea Partiers for Fools

Tea Party activists are right to be angry, writes Dana Milbank—but that anger should be directed at their own supposed leaders. Ordinary citizens are being manipulated by deep-pocketed "plutocrats" and "professional politicians" like those at FreedomWorks, he writes at the Washington Post. And before you follow Glenn Beck's advice to donate to the mom-and-pop Chamber of Commerce, note that its board includes the likes of Pfizer, JPMorgan Chase, Dow Chemical, and Rolls-Royce.

Also look at the personal fortunes and college pedigrees of some of the politicians taking biggest advantage of the movement. "There is genuine populist anger out there," writes Milbank. "But the angry have been deceived and exploited by posers who belong to the same class of 'elites' and 'insiders' that the Tea Party movement supposedly deplores. Americans who want to stick it to the man are instead sending money to the man." (More Tea Party stories.)