“Carry the water:” to do something (usually hard and unpleasant) for someone on their behalf, so they can avoid being recognized as the ones who are really in charge of the situation. Observe a case in point — the super rich and the tea party. ... I believe that most tea party members and sympathizers are good, honest people. I also believe that they have been chosen to carry the water for the rich and super rich in our society. The super rich, through many clever tricks and lies, have duped them to bear their message.
But
the primary stealth weapon of the super rich is fear. When they can make people afraid of losing what little they have, they can motivate the good, honest, concerned tea partiers into carrying their water.
By telling half-truths and blatant lies about such issues as immigration, personal freedom, welfare, religion and guns, they keep the tea partier types in constant fear.By spreading rumors and telling lies about “those brown and black” people trying to cheat the system or driving Cadillacs to the grocery to use food stamps or taking good white people's jobs or any other number of lies, they create fear. By demonizing any immigrant by using the word “alien or illegal” they create fear of common citizens losing their pitiful share of the economic pie.
By lying about immigrants draining Social Security dry, depleting our educational dollars or all being criminals, they create fear that creates anger and stokes tea partiers to action. By lying about how the government wants to take your guns or impose Sharia law in the courts, or lie about Christians being mistreated, or stealing your personal freedom, or any number of other lies and half-truths,
the super wealthy have created a climate of fear so that they can have someone else — the tea party and Right wingers — carry their water.http://normantranscript.com/opinion/x1753727242/Tea-Party-carries-water-for-the-super-richThe writer is generous to give teabaggers credit for being "good, honest people". (Perhaps he says this for effect rather than out of conviction.) The rest of the letter is classic.