May 14, 2010 8:40AM 

# The Desperate Left 

By [Roger Pilon](https://www.cato.org/people/roger-pilon) 

---

<a class="js-popover-trigger cursor-pointer popover-trigger" data-bs-placement="bottom" data-bs-trigger="click" id="popover-trigger"> 

SHARE 

</a> 

Today [Politico Arena](http://www.politico.com/arena/) asks:

> Are tea partiers the new John Birchers?

This is absurd. An obscure assistant professor teaching in a middling university writes [an opinion piece](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37217.html) comparing the Tea Party movement to the John Birch Society — indeed, even to the Ku Klux Klan — and Politico Arena asks us to take it seriously for comment?! *Res ipsa loquitur*: The several recent elections speak more loudly than this professor ever will. Back to adult fare.

##### Related Tags 

[Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law) 

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).