Right-wing columnist Mychael Massie is upset that some conservatives are beginning to criticize the Tea Party, pointing to Michael Reagan’s recent claim that Republicans would have won control of the US Senate “if the Tea Party hadn’t been so stupid in several races.”

Writing today in WorldNetDaily, Massie complains that Tea Party activists are being treated as “slaves” by politicians who are “cracking the whip for us to get back in line and do as they tell us,” comparing critics of the movement to Hugo Chavez and Saddam Hussein.

I find it deeply troubling when Michael Reagan, son of the late President Reagan, makes disparaging remarks about the likes and dislikes of tea-party movement people and the candidates we support. It’s as if we are not supposed to have an opinion. We are just supposed to keep quiet, send our money and vote how they tell us. As an illusion of participation, they will let us amuse ourselves believing we matter in the primaries; but they keep that season short-lived, cracking the whip for us to get back in line and do as they tell us.

I say those days have come and gone. We will not return to the plantation, and many of us are prepared to lose to prove that point. Establishment Republicans don’t own us or our votes – we aren’t their slaves. Our minds belong to us, and if they want to point to questionable decisions We the People have made, let them look in the mirror.

…

Our Founding Fathers created a government that was simple enough for any American citizen to represent the will of the people. But venal, nefarious, power-hungry malevolents have risen up and corrupted the system. Once in office, those who promised to represent us pass secret laws and provisions designed for them to make gain from their positions.

Elections are supposed to be about the will of the people. The people are you and me. It is not the right of Karl Rove, Michael Reagan, Reince Priebus or any other establishment politician to make light of us or dictate how we should vote. If it was wrong for Hugo Chavez and Saddam Hussein to do it, then it’s wrong for them.

The only reason the tea-party movement did not replicate the stunning upset victories in 2012 is because the GOP hierarchy – complicit with the NAACP, the Democrats and the national mainstream media – spent the two years prior bastardizing and labeling the tea-party movement as being comprised of racists and hicks from “Nowheresville.” We the People must remember what we accomplished in 2010 without GOP blessings or help. There is nothing We the People cannot accomplish when we band together and stand firm. And that is exactly what we must do in 2014.