Where was this “principled” GOP establishment when the Tea Party was being berated?

I have one question for the GOP establishment who are currently going out of their way to denounce every outrageous thing being said by Donald Trump: Where was this GOP when it was the Tea Party enduring terrible accusations made by Democrats who were busy labeling us extremists, terrorists, and racists?
Now, the point here is certainly not to defend the ​occasionally ridiculous or even offensive comments​ made by Trump,​ but to seriously ask these suddenly “principled” GOP leaders, like Paul Ryan, why they couldn’t lift a finger to defend the Tea Party from the outrageous things being said about us.

By Nancy Pelosi, who called us Nazis “carrying swastikas” to town meetings.

Or when Harry Reid said we were “anarchists.”

Or when Vice President Joe Biden called us “terrorists” and “crazy.”

Or when President Obama used a sexually explicit term, labeling us “tea-baggers.”

Or when the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security targeted Tea Party organizations and warned the United States about “right-wing extremism.”

The list goes on and on.

Where was the Republican establishment then? They were silent. They allowed us, millions of Americans protesting government overspending and overreach — people they pretended to agree with — to be trashed by politicians and the main stream media alike. No one in power defended us.

But now, Trump is being berated on a daily basis by the same GOP for the “offensive” things he says against his Democrat opponents? Give me a break.

Mitt Romney has been very vocal in his opposition to Trump’s candidacy and most recently asserted that his election would bring about “trickle-down racism, trickle-down bigotry, [and] trickle-down misogyny” that would hurt “the heart and character of America.”

But again, where was Romney, where was Ryan when the Tea Party needed the same intensity of resolve and principle to defend us from those who wanted to see the movement slandered to the point of destruction?

Nowhere to be found.