There’s no question about it, from all I’ve seen in the last 50 years. America has become more liberal. And just as certainly ... opposing groups have popped up in an effort to counter that.
What the HuffPo writer is trying to do is revive the epithet “reactionary”, which was applied through most of the 20th century to opponents of progressivism from the time of Theodore Roosevelt through the Johnson administration.
In other words, liberals feel that there is no intellectual basis to conservatism whatsoever, and that conservative opposition to the various liberal agendas is purely kneejerk and thoughtless.
Therefore, the Tea Party exists only for what it opposes, blah blah blah. The writer dredges up the John Birch Society to tar the Tea Party. Why stop there? Throw in the KKK while you’re at it.
Above all, delegitimize those who disagree with you. Then, if it’s like Germany in 1933, start rounding them up.