Tea party vs populism

From the beginning, I've been very uneasy with the Tea Party. Two years ago, they were being bandied in the media as a populist movement that was upset with bailouts and stimulus. I began disbelieving the populist moniker once:

1. Dick Armey, a person who has represented three of the banks that went bellyup and a big backer of repealing Glass-Steagall Act 12 years ago, joined the cause
2. Sarah Palin and Rick Perry waved the flag and were not be called on their corporatist leanings
3. it was revealed that the Koch brothers are once again AstroTurfing--this time they are hijacking populism to promote corporatist causes
4. various Tea Party leaders openly said that they wanted their groups to advance conservative causes

The first three points are exactly why my respect level for the Tea Party is BELOW ZERO. As for the final point, the Tea Party is doing nothing but ruining populism. Real populism should do the following things instead:

1. shatter and fight the current left-right paradigm. The Tea party openly embraces it
2. destroy the wretched system that only benefits a few and leads to the middle class being destroyed. The Tea Party has decided more often than not that the Republicans should be pushed even further to the right

Accepting corporatist nonsense like blaming the Community Reinvestment Act and anyone who isn't financially secure for today's financial crisis will lead to a scary path that our children will wonder why this generation let America descend to third-tier status, never mind second-tier.

As for other populists, especially those on the left, they are either small in number, feel powerless, or are silent on what's going on. That is unacceptable because they should not only be trying to put the Tea Partiers in their place, but they should be prodding President Obama to stop leaning on corporatist shills like Geithner and Summers. The Tea Party is as organic as GMO fish genes in a tomato so if other populists do not stop the Koch-backed frauds from spreading their lies and venom, them there is no hope for either populism taking hold in America or an overhaul of the two-party system.