American Spectator readers are probably familiar with the nationwide Tax Day Tea Party rallies being planned for Wednesday. Readers may be less familiar with the attempt by left-wing propagandists (like Jane Hamsher) to dismiss the Tea Party movement as being ginned up by Fox News, “Corporate America” and the usual suspects of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. The transparent object of this propaganda effort by the Left is to discourage coverage for the Tea Party movement by their liberal friends in the mainstream media.

Speaking as an ex-Democrat, I can say that nothing creates more ex-Democrats than the habitual deceit practiced by the Left in its efforts to control the Democratic Party and to conceal those efforts from scrutiny. Eventually you discover the truth and the realization that you have been bamboozled makes you angry.

It is no coincidence (as a Marxist might say) that many of the staunchest and most effective opponents of the Left are people like David Horowitz, the “Red Diaper” son of Communist Party parents, raised within the Left. And it is worth remembering that Ronald Reagan was himself a self-described “bleeding heart” liberal (he actually joined two Commie front groups) before he was forced to confront the deceptive machinations of the Communist Party in its effort to take over Hollywood.

A few weeks ago, it was revealed that the Left has been manipulating the national news media via an online communication loop called “JournoList.” As someone who follows political blogs closely, I had noticed how successful the Left was at (a) getting its favorite narratives picked up by the national media, and (b) discouraging coverage of narratives unfavorable to Democrats. Conservatives have long speculated on the role of back-channel communications between “progressive” activists and sympathetic journalists in this sort of coordinated messaging operation. The JournoList revelation exposed one of those back channels; that there are many others is easily inferred.

So you can imagine my reaction when I spotted Steve Benen of Washington Monthly pushing an anti-Tea Party message by Oliver Willis of Media Matters. Willis did a straight-up ad hominem attack, comparing the supposedly phony Tea Party protests to the authentic grassroots activism of the protests against the Iraq War.

Make. Me. Laugh. And now cue the army of anonymous leftoid trollbots in the comments.