Schumer's plan to 'poison' Tea Party

The Hill:

Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the Senate Democrats’ political guru, has a plan to poison the Tea Party by driving a wedge between its rich funders and its blue-collar rank and file.

Schumer, one of the Democrats’ most influential strategists, will argue in a major speech on Thursday that super-wealthy Tea Party donors have hijacked the grassroots movement that grew out of the economic anxiety of the 2008 financial collapse to suit their pro-big business agenda.

He’ll lay out a blueprint for how Democrats can exploit what he argues is a weakness in the opposition in the address at the Center for American Progress, a pro-Democratic think tank founded by John Podesta, who just joined President Obama’s inner circle at the White House.

"There is a glaring weakness, one very weak link in the Tea Party’s armor, which is an inherent contradiction within the Tea Party that I believe can be exposed to greatly weaken their hold on the policy debate," Schumer will say, according to excerpts of his remarks.

"The fundamental weakness in the Tea Party machine is the stark difference between what the leaders of the Tea Party elite, plutocrats like the Koch Brothers want and what the average grassroots Tea Party follower wants," he will say.
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I don't think he will have much success with this scheme.  The Tea Parties have no central leadership to speak of all though there are some large organizations.  They tend to self fund for the most part.  AFP does apparently get money from Koch related entities, but it is focused on supporting Tea Party objectives like repealing Obamacare and reducing government debt and taxes.

Democrats tend to see a class struggle where there is not one.  That is their world view, but it is not reflective of the Tea Party.  It is too bad people like Schumer are not willing to engage their political opponents on the issue and instead seek to poison them.