February 27, 2014 – 2:11 PM

Today’s anniversary of the launch of the modern Tea Party movement is brought to you by the number five.

In an old video from the YouTube channel of “Sesame Street,” lovable Kermit the Frog is a news reporter in Boston Harbor in 1773. Kermit is excited about interviewing the colonists, but soon discovers a problem.

The colonists Kermit talks to think the king has put a tax on the letter “t” (instead of “tea”) – so they’re throwing everything that begins with the letter “t” into the harbor, including tamales, ties, and (nearly) a woman’s tiara.

Kermit has to set the record straight. He explains to them that the king was taxing “tea, the beverage, the thing you drink.”

The colonists are grateful for the correction and eventually find some single tea bags to throw into the harbor instead-leaving Kermit to wonder if that will really have a lasting impact.

These Muppet colonists were confused about the principles of the Boston Tea Party in the same way that liberals are today confused about today’s Tea Party movement.

Just as the colonists in the skit misunderstand what their tea party stood for,  liberals today seem to have a misconception of the modern Tea Party movement’s agenda.

Instead of acknowledging its goals of  limited government, states’ rights, and protection from privacy overreaches by the National Security Agency, liberals accuse the participants of today’s Tea Party of being racists and worse. Their allies in the government have accused similarly-minded individuals of posing extremist threats, too.