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jpak

(41,742 posts)
Mon Oct 26, 2015, 03:18 PM Oct 2015

Tea party support hits a new low — because the tea party already won

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/10/26/tea-party-support-hits-a-new-low-because-the-tea-party-already-won/

At no point since Gallup began polling on the tea party has support for the movement been lower than it is today. In November 2010, on the brink of the election that sent conservative tea party-aligned politicians to Capitol Hill, nearly a third of the country said it supported the movement. In Gallup's most recent poll, support is at half that level.

Part of this is because it's hard to sustain high levels of grass-roots energy over the long-term. And part of it is because the tea party no longer needs to fight the Republican Party from the outside: It can fight it from within.

When Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) first ran for Congress in 2010, he embraced the movement and earned its support (to the extent that the movement spoke with one voice). He emerged from a crowded GOP primary, beat his Democratic opponent by more than 50 points, and headed to Washington. There, he validated the movement's faith in his politics, repeatedly pushing back against the Republican establishment. In 2012, he lost his seat on the House Budget Committee as punishment from House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

Over the long term, the House Republican caucus has gotten consistently more conservative, as measured by DW-NOMINATE scores compiled by VoteView.com. The scores look at roll call votes centered on the role of the government in the economy; higher scores show more opposition to that overlap. Since the mid-1970s, Republican scores have consistently risen.

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484
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Tea party support hits a new low — because the tea party already won (Original Post) jpak Oct 2015 OP
Their level of "public support" hifiguy Oct 2015 #1
The next redistricting is going to ugly. yeoman6987 Oct 2015 #2
In the beginning, the Teabaggers confronted the Republican Party establishment DFW Oct 2015 #3
 

hifiguy

(33,688 posts)
1. Their level of "public support"
Mon Oct 26, 2015, 03:22 PM
Oct 2015

doesn't matter as long as Repukes draw the districts for state legislatures and the House.

Anything calling itself a repig gets elected when the repigs determine who the majority is in a given district.

DFW

(54,055 posts)
3. In the beginning, the Teabaggers confronted the Republican Party establishment
Mon Oct 26, 2015, 03:28 PM
Oct 2015

Now, they ARE the Republican Party establishment.

Today's typical Republican is so far off the deep end, all they have to do to find a Teabagger is look in the nearest mirror.

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