The trouble with the Tea Party is two-fold. First, a quick grab by so-cons. Second, to paraphrase a wiseman, "The American people are stupid."
I was fascinated and optimistic about the Tea Party at the beginning. They seemed headed in a wise direction, politically. They said they were about fiscal responsibility, and not divisive social issues.
They did well in 2010, but that success gave so-cons a vehicle to hijack, and start running Angle, Akins, Buck, Mourdock, O'Donnell....with uinpopular social views.
The democrats were handed easy targets, because the TP now was running people far different than the original premise of the movement.
So the TP had few or no successes in 2012, and 2014. Gallup conducted polls over a long period, and the approval of the TP has declined significantly, in spite of unsupported claims to the contrary.
In order for the movement to again be useful and elect people, they need to go back to the initial premise--avoid social issues.
And then vet their candidates.
But from my vantage point, their is so much invested by fundraisers in keeping the TP as a vehicle for their OWN benefit, and their OWN benefit rides on a fringe image, it is not easily possible to start again.
