As much as liberals have tried to write it off as an artificial movement — “Astro-turf,” they have said — you just can’t fake a Republican victory in Massachusetts. The Tea Party Movement, named after the now-famous rant offered up by CNBC’s Rick Santelli, is the real thing when it comes to political movements.

It was born spontaneously as a reaction to left-wing economic policy. It currently enjoys the kind of following that no single leader on the Right could possibly command, and certainly no one in the corporate world.