[codeka]

It's fairly well-known that the Tea Party was basically funded by the Koch brothers, right? I assume you've read things like [1] which go fairly deep into how they funded and organized pretty much all the "grass roots" activities of the Tea Party

Now, these "reopen" protests are basically the same. The sentiments of the people are real, but the funding and organizing are not "grass roots" by any normal definition of the word. For example, of the Michigan protests[2]:

> The Michigan Freedom Fund, which said it was a co-host of the rally, has received more than $500,000 from the DeVos family, regular donors to rightwing groups.

> The other host, the Michigan Conservative Coalition, was founded by Matt Maddock, now a Republican member of the state house of representatives. The MCC also operates under the name Michigan Trump Republicans, and in January held an event featuring several members of the Trump campaign.

[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/26/koch-brother... [2]: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/18/coronavirus-...