Editor’s Note: Katrina vanden Heuvel writes a weekly column at WashingtonPost.com. Read an excerpt here at TheNation.com.

This Thursday, thousands of Tea Partyers will mass in Washington and across the country. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), former Alaska governor Sarah Palin (R) and others will sound strident alarms about government overreach. There will be no shortage of fury about the debt, deficits and taxes.

So how do we move beyond this mud fight and have a sane conversation about taxes, the proper role of government and how to rebuild our economy?

We certainly won’t get there with the extremes of the Tea Party dominating the already suffocatingly narrow media conversation with a message of "shrink government, cut taxes and President Obama is taking your freedom."

Read the rest of Katrina’s column at WashingtonPost.com.