Who’s laughing now?
Besides Sen.-elect Scott Brown, the big winner from Tuesday’s stunning upset victory in Massachusetts is the so-called Tea Party movement — grassroots activism sparked by out-of-control federal spending.
Tea Parties popped up around the country last spring, bringing together ordinary folks appalled by the fiscal profligacy on display in Washington.
At first, the mainstream media largely ignored the Tea Party gatherings. Then came the laughter and the smarmy epithet, “teabaggers.”
Next, liberals attacked Tea Party-goers as extremists or racists or neo-Nazis.
While all this went on, the Tea Party folks kept on organizing.
Scott Brown reached out to these activists online — and they responded.
Boy, did they ever: In the week before the election, Brown raised nearly $1 million a day on the Internet.
And, on Tuesday, Scott Brown won.
But it wasn’t just a victory for him.
It was also a win for ordinary citizens filled with righteous passion and energy who demanded some accountability from their elected leaders in Washington.
Good for them.
Party on.