Where was this (now) “principled” GOP establishment when Democrats maligned the Tea Party?

I have one question for the GOP establishment currently going out of their way to denounce and dissect every thing Donald Trump says:

Where were you when Democrats labeled us Tea Partiers extremists, terrorists, and racists?
Why couldn’t these suddenly “principled” GOP leaders, like Paul Ryan, lift a finger to defend the Tea Party from the outrageous things being said about us?

To refresh your memory:

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

Harry Reid said we were “anarchists.”

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

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

How about 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.

My question is rhetorical.  I know where 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.