I agree with Sawzaw to a great degree, but I think ...
"All this demonizing of the Tea Party just serves to fire up
the leftie/progressive base."
It is just the standard demonization you see from many on the left:
The Tea Party types are portrayed as: White, stupid, racist, desperate, scared and deluded. They are said to be selfish, and ignorant of, and lying about, economics. They supposedly bully people, try to scare old people, carry guns, and are prepared to foster anarchy.
The people who spew these hateful claims -- some of them on these forum postings -- are the same ones who call themselves kind, open-minded, liberal and progressive, and say things such as:
Progressives have the better ideas for the future...
Rational conservatives would work with Democrats to fix problems.
Their isn't a ton of difference between Obama and Eisenhower.

From what I've seen, not one of the people making those types of claims has ever been to a Tea Party rally, and is just parroting the hateful characterizations they get from left-wing media.
Tea Party types seem to be very concerned about a goverment that borrows more than 30-cents of every dollar it spends, and seems hell-bent on a "Fundamental transformation" of America away from the freedoms and prosperity of the 50's-90's. They are opposed to the leftist ideology of the progressives/socialists/Commies that the current administration seems to support, and they do not want America to become bankrupt, or end up like Greece. THEY know that the gov't does not need to grow at a rate of 8% annually, and that doubing the size of the gov't in the last 10 years is insane. They believe the profligate spending of Obama is poised to bring the country to ruin.

The reason the Tea Party types aren't willing to do much in the way of compromising...? ? ?
I'm thinking it probably has nothing to do with Obama and the Dems forcing the health care takeover bill down the American public's throats, does it ? ? ?