Why is this a surprise? The Tea Party movement has never been a mainstream movement. It’s their opposition that has tried to make it appear that way by constantly harping on them and people like Hannity and Limbaugh who are trying to make them out to be more than they are.
I know, I know, Limbaugh is the mainstream, right? Well, that would seem not to be so in this case.
What I’m struck by is that I heard Perry on the news, & he talks in very much the same sort of accent & cadence as W Bush. I guess they both talk West Texan, but I found it kind of weird.
In the middle. Depending on which order you read it in. 
And you clearly don’t get lit studies if you think those are strikes against studiable lit!
I was thinking that Satan was the protagonist. That God fella is clearly the super-villain in the piece. 
Touché.