{"id":2736,"date":"2009-12-08T01:48:52","date_gmt":"2009-12-08T06:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kevinbryant.com\/?p=2736"},"modified":"2009-12-08T01:48:52","modified_gmt":"2009-12-08T06:48:52","slug":"new-poll-shows-tea-party-more-popular-than-republican-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/new-poll-shows-tea-party-more-popular-than-republican-party\/","title":{"rendered":"New poll shows ‘Tea Party’ more popular than Republican Party"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0new Rasmussen poll<\/span><\/a> finds that the\u00a0tea party movement<\/span>‘s popularity is growing, so much so that it garners more support than the Republican party on a generic Congressional ballot. The poll hints that the burgeoning discontent among conservatives within the\u00a0GOP<\/span>threatens to splinter the party at a time when the popularity ofPresident Obama<\/span> and the Democratic-controlled Congress are waning as we head into an election year.<\/p>\n

The tea party movement was conceived out of antipathy for President Obama’s\u00a0economic stimulus plan<\/span> and cultivated by groups like Freedom Works and conservative commentators such as\u00a0Glenn Beck<\/span>. Its guiding principals are centered around opposition to tax increases and the expansion of federal government spending. The movement rose to prominence when it organized highly-publicized protest gatherings across the country on April 15th of this year.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0reported by Talking Points Memo<\/span><\/a>, the respondents to theRasmussen poll<\/span> were asked the following question:<\/p>\n

“Okay, suppose the Tea Party Movement organized itself as a political party. When thinking about the next election for Congress, would you vote for the Republican candidate from your district, the Democratic candidate from your district, or the\u00a0Tea Party candidate<\/span> from your district?”<\/em><\/p>\n

The response of all those who were polled was Democratic 36%,\u00a0Tea Party<\/span> 23% and Republican 18%. Further, the poll found thatindependents are more inclined to vote<\/span><\/a> for a tea party candidate over Democratic or Republican candidates.<\/p>\n

While some Republicans have\u00a0expressed dismay<\/span><\/a> over the emergence of the tea party movement, others have suggested that\u00a0the GOP should embrace<\/span><\/a> the group and its issues.<\/p>\n

Tea party sympathizers recently proposed a resolution to make theRNC<\/span> withhold its endorsement and funding unless candidates pass an “ideological purity test<\/span><\/a>.” The movement\u00a0will hold its first national convention<\/span><\/a> this January in Nashville, and\u00a0Glenn Beck has indicated<\/span><\/a>that he intends to stake out a more activist role in politics going forward by\u00a0holding seminars<\/span><\/a> across the country to educate conservatives on how to run for office without the support of a major political party.
\nBut the Republican party has yet to determine whether or not they can harness the energy emanating from the right wing without being pulled out of the mainstream. This dilemma was highlighted by the\u00a0GOP’s November loss<\/span><\/a> of a congressional seat it had held since the 1800s, after a tea party-supported candidate pressured the establishment Republican out of the race.\u00a0 That race suggested something rather striking: while the\u00a0GOP<\/span> may not be able to win without the support of the tea party movement, they might not be able to win with it running the show either.<\/p>\n

— <\/em>Brett Michael Dykes is a contributor to the Yahoo! News Blog<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0new Rasmussen poll finds that the\u00a0tea party movement‘s popularity is growing, so much so that it garners more support than the Republican party on a generic Congressional ballot. The poll hints that the burgeoning discontent among conservatives within the\u00a0GOPthreatens to splinter the party at a time when the popularity ofPresident Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2736","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2gEQ0-I8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}