Abrams writes: "As the 2016 presidential campaigns move into full swing, a new poll indicates the tea party may be less of a factor in the election than it has been over the past five years."
Tea Party rally. (photo: unknown)
Tea Party Support Falls to New Low: Republicans Now Oppose Conservative Movement That Influenced 2010 Elections
27 October 15
s the 2016 presidential campaigns move into full swing, a new poll indicates the tea party may be less of a factor in the election than it has been over the past five years. Support for the far-right conservative movement that helped Republicans reclaim control of the House of Representatives in 2010 is at an all-time low, according to the Gallup poll released Monday.
Just 17 percent of Americans polled said they support the tea party, while 24 percent oppose it and a record 54 percent neither support nor oppose the movement. This low represents a significant drop from the peak of 32 percent support the movement enjoyed in November 2010. But opposition has also dropped from its peak of 31 percent, which occurred right before last year�s midterm elections.
The tea party emerged in the early days of the Obama administration from angry voters who were tired of what they saw in the nation�s capitol and wanted to curb government spending by putting fresh faces in office. Since the 2010 midterm elections when many tea party candidates were successfully elected to office, support for the movement has generally eroded. It has not seen support reach 25 percent since August 2012.
the international nuclear agreement with Iran outside the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. Sept. 9.
(photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)
Support has even dropped among Republican subgroups that were initially strong backers of the movement, according to Gallup. A majority of Independents who lean Republican initially supported the tea party in 2010 polls, but they have seen a 29-point drop, to 23 percent support, in the two most recent polls, conducted in November 2014 and October 2015. Conservative Republicans� support of the tea party has also dropped by 21 percentage points from 63 percent initially to 42 percent now.
Despite the decline in support from 2010, Republicans increased their majority in the House in 2014 and gained control of the Senate. Still, some tea party candidates have succeeded in pushing congressional leadership to the right and grown in national recognition since their elections. These include Republican presidential candidates Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who were both swept into office with support from voters outside the Republican establishment. The two Senate freshmen stand at third and fourth place, respectively, in Real Clear Politics� national polling average of Republican presidential candidates.
Still, the lack of energy for and against the tea party suggests that the movement�s time in the spotlight may be over. Already this election cycle has seen outsiders like Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina perform strongly without the formal support of a recognizable movement such as the tea party.
The Gallup poll was conducted Oct. 7-11 and included 1,015 adults across the country answering questions via landlines and cell phones. There was a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
|
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
Comments
We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.
General guidelines: Avoid personal attacks on other forum members; Avoid remarks that are ethnically derogatory; Do not advocate violence, or any illegal activity.
Remember that making the world better begins with responsible action.
- The RSN Team
But we have to be more specific about what we want done. That's where Greta falls down. She just wants us to stop using fossil fuel today. Just stop now. That, of course will never happen. That's how a 13 year old thinks about things because that's what an angry parent shout at a 13 year old when she won't stop nagging -- "just stop, just fucking stop right now and go to your room."
13 year old logic won't work for the carbon over-saturation of the atmosphere. Greta also scoffed at Trump's idea to plant 1 million trees. Leaving aside that Trump probably did not mean it and he won't ever do it, the solution to over-consumptio n of carbon is a thousand, or better a million, small efforts. There is no big one fell swoop that will erase carbon pollution today, as Greta seems to want. We need millions of small efforts and projects.
Humans will migrate away from fossil fuel to renewables over time. Anything that can enhance that movement is good.
She KNOWS her limitations -- that of a 17 y.o. girl. All she has EVER said is -- LISTEN TO THE SCIENTISTS, AND ACT ON THAT. So, it's not what GRETA wants and says, it's what THOUSANDS of scientists world wide have wanted and said for the better part of a decade. And -- probably just to please Steve Mnuchen -- those folks DID go to university and get advanced degrees in climate science, a field way out of Mnuchen's league and capability to understand. She understands her role -- that of current celebrity mouthpiece for the work of others previously ignored who HAVE done the heavy lifting, the research, and the homework. So stop faulting her; the fault is in your own erroneous perception of her.
Humans may or may not "migrate away from fossil fuel to renewables over time." What's abundantly clear is -- time is something we no longer have. Civilization as we know it, and perhaps the Planet as well, cannot survive a gradualist response. We have terminal, Stage 4.5 planetary cancer. The ONLY treatment will have to be radical; or else, accept death and your own role in making it happen.
I want us to to STOP USING FOSSIL FUEL TODAY. JUST STOP NOW!
But there are thousands of card-carrying economists who could have done a better job of validating Greta and eviscerating Munchkin. The American and British Economic Association have actively suppressed alternative paradigms and unorthodox approaches, including among their own members, beginning in about 1950.