Here's the conclusion of an excellent piece by Dr. Robert Owens:
They are counting the Tea Party out because we aren't holding mass rallies. They believe they've won the organizational battle because they were able to mobilize the occupy everywhere crowd to gather for a street party and pollute some major cities. They believe that since the conservative vote is currently split in the GOP they will manage to nominate the next Bob Dole/John McCain moderate to play the part of the Washington Generals in a Harlem Globe Trotter game: good but never quite good enough. In 2012 they see the Republicans, like the Washington Generals, there to provide a platform for the chosen winner to shine.
The parties of power treat us with such disdain it's obvious they believe we're the sheep they work so hard to make us. They believe Americans have been dumbed down enough and fattened with enough entitlements that we'll barely bah bah bah as they lead us to the shearing shed one more time. Our Progressive leaders in both parties see that [this] election is the one that counts. This is the election that will either drive us over the cliff into the shabby abyss of collectivist conformity or the one that will give us one last opportunity to return to limited government, personal liberty, and economic freedom.
We may not be demonstrating in the streets. We may not be organizing boycotts. We may not be united behind one candidate. However, we are awake. We are educating ourselves. We are determined that this great experiment in human freedom shall not perish from the face of the earth. Vote for the Constitution. Vote for personal liberty. Vote for economic freedom. If we all do what we can do we will accomplish what must be done. We will keep the faith. We will keep the peace. We shall overcome!
Read all of it here: http://www.hyscience.com/archives/2012/01/how_dumb_do_the.php