INDReporter

Tea Party losing its luster

by Leslie Turk

Fewer Americans are drinking the tea.

While more than half of those surveyed by the Pew Research Center Nov. 9-14 still won't say whether they support the Tea Party movement, more have a negative opinion of it today than a year ago. In fact, the Pew study reveals that since its victories in the 2010 mid-term elections, the Tea Party has lost both national support and support in congressional districts represented by members of the House Tea Party Caucus.

The Pew also noted that the image of the Republican Party has declined "even more sharply in these GOP-controlled districts than across the country at large."

More Americans, 27 percent, now disagree than agree, 20 percent, with the Tea Party movement. Pew noted that year ago, in the wake of the sweeping GOP gains in the midterm elections, opinions were just the opposite on the party: 27 percent agreed and 22 percent disagreed.

The general public may not like the Tea Party, but it isn't particularly fond of Republicans or Democrats either: 36 percent now say they have a favorable opinion of the Republican Party, down from 42 percent in March, according to Pew. Opinions of the Democratic Party, however, have shifted less, according to the survey from 50 percent favorable last summer to 48 percent in March and 46 percent in October.

Read the full results of the Pew survey here.