At first, they were ignored. Then they were mocked. Next, they were roundly smeared and scorned.
Today, the Tea Party movement has in its grip the trembling attention of both Democrats and Republicans.
Before Tuesday’s primary night, all the Tea Party “victories” had been qualified in some way.
In upstate New York, they throttled a liberal faker running as a Republican. But it was tough justice because the political murder-suicide handed the seat to Democrats. Still, they made their point. At least to a few Republicans who were paying attention.
Fighting for Ted Kennedy’s old Senate seat in Massachusetts a few months later, Tea Partiers helped carry Scott Brown to an upset victory.
But Brown, an establishment Republican in the nation’s most liberal state, hardly shares all the purist conservative beliefs embraced by the Tea Party.
Their victory upended the notion that Tea Partiers are so ideologically rigid that they would be unable to function in a democracy.
Then, storming Florida on behalf of conservative Marco Rubio, Tea Partiers ran the sitting governor, Charlie Crist, out of his own Republican Party for not holding true enough to conservatism.
But it was an ugly defenestration and cued up a three-way race for the November election.
What we saw Tuesday night in Kentucky was a pure, unalloyed victory for the Tea Party.
Rand Paul, the son of the quirky congressman from Texas, trounced the establishment candidate who had been groomed and supported by leaders at the highest levels of the Republican Party.
In accepting his win, Paul thanked the Tea Party and vowed to remain true to its ideals as he sets off into the general election. And he promised to “take our government back.”
It was a message to both Democrats and Republicans, who have no choice but to finally pay attention now.