After watching House Republicans in action, guess who looks bad?
From a new Gallup poll:
Tea Party Sparks More Antipathy Than Passion
Overall support for Tea Party movement is now 25%, a new low
From a new WaPo-Pew poll:
More see negative than positive effect for tea party
When the 112th Congress started in January, more Americans anticipated a positive rather than negative role for the newly elected members affiliated with the tea party political movement. Now, a new Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll finds public opinion tilted the other way.
In the new poll, 29 percent say congressional representatives associated with the tea party have had a “mostly negative” effect, 11 percentage points higher than the number expecting a negative impact at the beginning of the term. Now, 22 percent see a “mostly positive” effect, down five points...
The see-saw in public opinion on tea party-affiliated members is particularly apparent among Democrats and independents. In January, 30 percent of Democrats and 14 percent of independents said tea party members would have a mostly negative effect; those numbers have jumped to 49 and 28 percent, respectively.
From
CNN (.pdf):
As I read each name, please say if you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of these people -- or if you have never heard of them.
tea party favorable 31
tea party unfavorable 51
That's a -20, almost as bad as the GOP's -26
in the same poll (Democrats were even).
This shouldn't be a surprise. Americans have said they want compromise and they want to see taxes raised on corporations and the wealthy, while not wanting their entitlement programs cut significantly.
The tea party, with its small national constituency but outsized influence in Republican circles, has hit its high water mark. Republicans have choices to make in terms of pandering to them, and they are not all choosing to do so.
Going forward, expect to see similar numbers. To know them is to reject them.
At least something good came out of the debt ceiling fight.