The political power of the Tea Party movement appears to have declined significantly:
The Tea Party has gone dry.
Once the talk of the nation and a well-supported positive force in politics, membership has dropped as has their approval rating, according to a new Rasmussen Reports poll.
Rasmussen found:
— Just 8 percent of likely voters say they are Tea Party members, down from 24 percent in 2010.
— Some 30 percent have a favorable view of the Tea Party, down from 51 perent in 2009.
— 56 percent said it has become less influential.
More from the Rasmussen Poll:
Views of the Tea Party movement are at their lowest point ever, with voters for the first time evenly divided when asked to match the views of the average Tea Party member against those of the average member of Congress. Only eight percent (8%) now say they are members of the Tea Party, down from a high of 24% in April 2010 just after passage of the national health care law.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 30% of Likely U.S. Voters now have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party. Half (49%) of voters have an unfavorable view of the movement. Twenty-one percent (21%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
In April 2009 when the Tea Party protests against President Obama’s spending policies first erupted, 51% of Americans held a favorable opinion of the movement. However, just 35% felt that way by last July.
Only 34% of voters now believe the Tea Party movement is good for the country, down from 49% in April 2011. Slightly more (40%) think the Tea Party is bad for the country, while 17% say neither.
By all appearances, it seems clear that the Tea Party movement reached its zenith during the battles over the President’s health care reform efforts and, subsequently, the 2010 midterms. Ever since then, public approval of the movement has declined precipitously without little sign that it’s going to turn around any time soon. At the same time, the Tea Party has become ever more integrated into the base of the Republican Party and the GOP has become, in many respects and especially in the House GOP Caucus, a reflection of the Tea Party. This doesn’t bode well for the near term political future of Republican politicians I would imagine.
