I actually can confirm that.
In my area, there were a number of Tea Party events that happened when it first started to become a thing, and they were focused on one thing only: forcing the establishment to actually address real problems their constitutents were worried about under threat of primaries. One of my friends, who was big on the RNC ground game at the time, was really enthused about it. Then, sure as the sun rises, the establishment quickly captured and co-opted it, turning it into a laughingstock by leveraging the most insane idiots possible as mouthpieces for it. The entire thing fell apart soonafter.
It's basically exactly what happened with Occupy once the establishment realized the threat it posed. Replace the Birthers with ANTIFA goons, the 9/11 Truthers with Gender Identity Politicans, and you have the exact same thing, chapter and verse.
The Uniparty is a dreadful thing.