"Tea Party" More Popular Than Democratic or Republican Party...

Excelent discusion annie, no overt partisanship, no mention of a certain former governor (that had to be hard...lol...kidding ), nicely done. I first want to comment on what a profoundly signifigant thing this poll says about the state of our nation, where a political party that doesn't even really exist is now mutlitudes more popular than either of the two parties that do exist. People are fed up...really fed up. But this is no suprise to me, I predicted this over a year ago and once again *toots own horn* I was right.....Im a sage...lol... I wouldn't say its been taken over by the far right, step back a little and look at the bigger picture. It is asociated with the conservative ideal, but that is only part of the picture, this is mostly people who are now seeing that conservative or liberal isn't as important as belief in a non intrusive, constitutional government. Sure there have been hijackings, from the republicans who jumped on the bandwagon, some of whom are booed off the stage at the tea party rallies sometimes. I so want to grab republicans like that and shake them by the shirt collar and yell "why are you here? your part of the problem we're fighting!" There are unfotunately more extreme types and even a few racists groups trying to align themselves with it too, but often they too are driven out of rallies. And of course too the ocaisional agents provacteurs that show up, but their usualy pretty easy to spot. I don't see the tea party at large ever really merging with the tea parties in any large way, like I said, most see the republicans as part of the problem and many aren't really going to buy the whole "penetant sinner" shtick any more, we're all had enough of that one. I think in the congressional races, what effect a tea party associated independants will have is going to vary from district to district. It's ging to be a season of wild cards, lol, I hate lection season but I am looking forward to this one, its going to be very interesting I think. As for the presidential elections in 2012...gahd...who knows, still a long way and things are pretty fluid right now, contantly changing. That poll you posted came only a mere couple weeks after one that showed the same hypatheticl situaion soundly marginalizing the republicans but handing democrats a win...now just a few short weeks later, it shifted prety signifigantly. I don't honetly think either party fully understands the deep trouble they are in. They still dont get it, it isn't about a bigger or smaller tent....the bigger picture they are still missing is we want our camp site back.

It doesn't surprise me really. I am sure if you polled Americans on how we should elect our president in the future, the majority would pick voting on American Idol. We many be the best country in the world, but not the most intelligent.

Well I'm going to start by correcting the article (not you, but the article itself). Popularity and favorability are two COMPLETELY different things. Take for example Laura Bush. She had very high favorability, but was not the least bit popular. Then there's Hillary Clinton, there were times where she had rather low favorability, but there was no question she was still popular. More recently (during the 2008 election), Cindy McCain was viewed more favorably than Michelle Obama, but Michelle Obama was clearly more popular. My point is they're measuring one thing and pretending that it measures something else to make a point. Now, why is this theoretical Tea Party viewed more favorably? They haven't done ANYTHING and if you haven't done anything, you haven't done anything wrong. Now obviously even a die hard democrat or republican can admit that high profile members of their parties have done things wrong. You really don't have to go back more than a week or two to find an example. The Tea Party has no real leaders, and as such, no high profile people who would be under media scrutiny. The reason they are viewed far more favorably by Fox News viewers is simple. Unlike CNN and MSNBC Fox News analysts and anchors have never gone out of their way to denigrate the Tea Party movement for opposing Obama's agenda, nor has anyone on Fox News made disgusting "tea-bagging" jokes the way they did on CNN and MSNBC. I don't believe in the slightest that the Tea Party movement is taken over by the far right. People who believe that are the same ones that say the more you believe in the constitution the further to the right you are. I started a thread on that a while ago. Basically the tea party movement is made up of people who are more libertarian or constitutional. Some are long time independents while others are disaffected democrats or republicans. Your question of whether they would accept moderate republicans depends on how they are moderate. If moderate means voting for the stimulus, cap and trade, or TARP, than definitely no. If moderate means they favor social issues like gay marriage then yes, they probably wouldn't have a big issue with that since taxing, spending, and authoritarian governments are the biggest concern to people at the tea parties. As for the "VERY FEW" moderate republicans, that's just not the case. What is completely nonexistant are moderate democrats in the senate. Moderate is just a euphemism for "higher price tag" and I think you know that's true after Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu were bought. I don't think a candidate can be "chosen" by them right now since there is no such process. If a candidate appealed to them, and was a big hit, than perhaps he could win. It will still be an uphill battle, but now is the best time for third party candidates to get in the game and run for big offices. Right now, I think the democrats will be hurt the most. The reason is that voters have VERY short memories and democrats have complete authoritarian rule of both houses and the presidency. They are to blame for EVERYTHING that happens right now and have plummeting popularity while the GOP's popularity is actually rising slowly.

It looks like Fox news achieved another "E" rating. In my years of schooling that "E" stands for Failure, not excellant. What else could you expect from Fox!LOL

Our country is a funny one. We've had more than one party before and it didn't work. We used to have four politic parties that would get about equal votes each and would have equal power. However many presidents, including Lincoln, were winning without the majority voting them. Logically, they only have to get 26%, or more, of the votes to win if the other votes were divided equally among the three other groups. This is also why we have an electorial college. If this teaparty thing goes work, I think it will negatively affect Democrats. Many Americans are Republican but don't want the "stigma" of a Republican label.

ok so i take it the tea party movement is the far right and not what it sounds like (grannies who lunch)? is this what they call themselves? because i seem to remember somebody saying that using the word tea to describe somebody's politics was derogatory