Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Just who is the "Tea Party" anyway? You probably have heard such accusations as, "The Tea Party is a bunch of far right-wing extremists, nut jobs and tinfoil hat wearers!" Now, recall where you heard those myths. Most likely it was from Democrats, and their willing accomplices in the "mainstream media." Shamefully, you may have also heard it from the Old Guard Republican establishment, from the national level right down to that here in Gloucester.

It is all about a perceived threat to political power. The Democrats see the Tea Party for what it is—direct opposition to their ideology of ever-expanding government; they are quite correct. The Tea Party’s number-one priority is to bring the government, at all levels, back within the limits imposed on it by our Constitution (from which it has strayed mightily). This runs head-on into the Democrats’ push for more and more centralized power in providing a nanny state at the expense of citizens&...