It appears the independent center of American politics has shifted decisively to the right as the Tea Party has grown during the past year

It turns out as well that Tea Partiers aren't exclusively conservatives or Republicans. The Winston Group has done perhaps the most extensive polling among voters who identify themselves as Tea Partiers, and found that "57 percent of Tea Party members called themselves Republicans, another 28 percent said they were independents, and 13 percent were Democrats. Two-thirds of Tea Party members identify as conservatives but 26 percent say they are moderate and 8 percent described themselves as liberal." As for those allegedly growing threats of violence by Tea Partiers, no less an authority than Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman said this week that "no, the threat has not increased." He added that much of what has been written in the media about such threats "actually is not accurate." Since the IRS has a unit that tracks such tracks, if anybody would know about growing anti-government violence, surely it would be the head tax man.

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