Is the Tea Party over?

[DonViejo]

The answer depends on whether you see it as a political movement or an elaborate right-wing marketing plan

BY ADELE M. STAN, ALTERNET

There’s a new parlor game in your nation’s capital, played by reporters and pundits who begin with a single question: Is the Tea Party dead? Endlessly entertaining to ponder, it’s a question whose answer depends on your definition of the Tea Party movement.

Are you talking about the 900 grassroots Tea Party groups in 2010 whose numbers have now dwindled to 600? Or the popularity of the movement among most Americans? Or do you measure the “Tea Party” as a marketing plan by the right wing in its 50-year quest to bend the Republican Party to its will and bring the nation to its knees?

Miss Uncongeniality

The new year kicked off with a poll that brought a smile to progressive faces: Rasmussen Reports, the Republican-tilting polling firm, found membership in the Tea Party movement among likely voters to have plummeted to a mere 8 percent. That’s a steep drop from 2010 when, just after the passage of the healthcare reform law, Rasmussen reported 24 percent of respondents calling themselves Tea Party members.

Even worse for those who don the tricorn hat is Rasmussen’s finding that half of the likely electorate now views the Tea Party unfavorably, while only 30 percent express a favorable opinion of the movement. So, game over, right?

Not quite. The day after Rasmussen released its numbers, Roll Call, a sort of trade publication for political types, ran a story with the title, “Tea Party Re-Flexes Its Muscle,” about the coming battles in Washington over the debt ceiling and spending, and fearsome threats by Tea Party groups to Republicans who dare to compromise with the president.

-snip-

read more:
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/14/is_the_tea_party_over/

[BlueDemKev]

1. No, it's not.

For two reasons:

1) Hatred and fear are natural human instincts that can always be played to by manipulative individuals seeking to mobilize the masses.

2) The national debt is too high. There's no denying it. The problem is the Tea Party simply wants all domestic spending eliminated (including S.S. & Medicare) and want all social programs designed to help people who are disabled, etc. abolished. But cut military spending? OH, NO!!! THAT'S UNPATRIOTIC!

[kairos12]

2. Probably Not

The redistricting scam the Tea Baggers pulled off will make it very difficult to rid ourselves of this plague.

[ellisonz]

3. I would go to Free Republic and ask

But their layout gives me headaches of epic proportions - come to think of it - maybe that's why they think the world is ending.