"The Tea Party Isn't Going Anywhere"

SKOCPOL: The Tea Party isn't going anywhere. "Even though there is no one center of Tea Party authority--indeed, in some ways because there is no one organized center--the entire gaggle of grassroots and elite organizations amounts to a pincers operation that wields money and primary votes to exert powerful pressure on Republican officeholders and candidates. Tea Party influence does not depend on general popularity at all. Even as most Americans have figured out that they do not like the Tea Party or its methods, Tea Party clout has grown in Washington and state capitals. Most legislators and candidates are Nervous Nellies, so all Tea Party activists, sympathizers, and funders have had to do is recurrently demonstrate their ability to knock off seemingly unchallengeable Republicans." Theda Skocpol in Democracy.

ABRAMOWITZ: Republicans face a fork in the road. "The Republican Party today faces major challenges in seeking to remain competitive in national elections in the face of long-term shifts in cultural attitudes and in the demographic composition of the electorate. The Tea Party movement isn't making it any easier for the party to adapt to these profound shifts in the electoral environment." Alan I. Abramowitz in Democracy.