The Incredible Shrinking Tea Party [But S&P Confirms Tea-Party Agenda!]

By Greg Sargent I f there’s one thing the debt ceiling battle revealed, it’s that the Tea Party continues to enjoy outsized influence in Washington in general and over the GOP in particular.

So it’s interesting to note that according to the internals of today’s New York Times poll, the Tea Party is rapidly shrinking before our very eyes, and is hemorraging supporters at a surprising rate:

The 18 percent who self-identify as Tea Party supporters is at its lowest point, tying the 18 percent who supported it way back in April of 2010, when it was first gaining steam as the Congressional races of last cycle began heating up. The trajectory is interesting: The Times poll shows the Tea Party has had some ups and downs, but it steadily gained supporters as the 2010 campaigns wore on, and peaked with 31 percent of the electorate saying they supported the movement at around the time that the GOP won its massive 2010 victory.

Then its support began to decline, and it then dropped a precipitous eight points from June until today — a period that roughly coincided with the debt ceiling debate, which showcased Tea Party intransigence and self-delusion at its finest. Not only that, but right now, the 73 percent who say they are not supporters is at its highest point ever.

What’s more, as Steve Benen notes, the numbers who disaprove of the Tea Party and who think it has too much influence over the GOP are running as high as ever.

Interestingly, the Tea Party is declining in public support even as its influence in Washington has, if anything, peaked.

I was looking at the polls internals and it looks like a poll designed specifically to deflate TP numbers but that is not a surprise. NY Times and lib papers do this all the time. It is true that those who consider themselves active TP are about 20% this has remained steady. The problem when you ask things like ‘Do you support the Tea Party?’ many people conflate this as a money question. Even in this NYtimes polls a huge chunk either didn’t know enough or are undecided about the Tea Party ‘39%’ which Sargent fails to point out. Rasmussen is much better at polling questions designed to really find out the mood. Here’s an older poll.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/april_2011/48_say_their_views_closer_to_tea_party_than_congress

I think it should be standard for these polling organizatiosn to release a geographic distribution map of their polls. That would make analysis of these things much easier. It is interesting that 44% of respondents even in this left leaning poll said the spending cuts didn’t go far enough. Only 15% say they went too far. The rest I believe are idiots who at 29% say just right or don’t know.

Actually, the international banksters and Chi-coms wanted two things from Obama economicially: Massive tax increases on wage earners and a socialized medical system. Limo liberal CEO’s don’t want to pay for health insurance benefits and they want us to pay for a socialized medical system with massive tax increases.

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