Cold, Bitter Tea

Yet another poll is showing that the Tea Party has lost a lot of steam since the 2010 election. and that Americans have quite a bit of buyer's remorse about putting the GOP back in charge of the House two years ago.

A major force in the 2010 midterm elections, the movement has stalled in public popularity, its support well below a majority and decidedly lukewarm. And Americans by a broad 23-point margin say the more they hear about the Tea Party movement, the less they like it, rather than liking it more.

That negative buzz has worsened from a 9-point gap in an ABC News/Washington Post poll as the movement was gathering speed two years ago. And its avenues for resurgence may be limited: Interest in learning more about Tea Party is down 7 points from spring 2010.

This poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, finds that six in 10 Americans aren’t particularly interested in additional information about the Tea Party, and 41 percent aren’t interested “at all.” Thirty-nine percent have at least some interest, but just 9 percent are very interested. Among those with interest, moreover, more than six in 10 already support it.

See PDF with full results and charts here

All told, 41 percent of Americans identify themselves as supporters of the movement, compared with a high of 47 percent last September. Forty-five percent oppose it; 14 percent have no opinion. Support has dropped disproportionately among young adults in that period, down 20 points from 51 percent to 31 percent.

While overall support is roughly balanced with overall opposition, “strong” opponents outnumber strong supporters by 2-1. But perhaps most damaging is the buzz: Fifty percent of Americans say the more they hear about the Tea Party, the less they like it; just 27 percent say they like it more. That compares with a much closer (albeit still negative) 43-34 percent split on this question in April 2010.

The bottom line is that the Tea Party gets overwhelming support from conservative Republican evangelical men age 30-49, and significantly less from everyone else.  The War on Women and attacks on Latinos, African-Americans, and the LGBT community has absolutely shut down Tea Party support among Americans under 30.  Two years ago, America's younger voters were willing to at least entertain the notion that the Tea Party was about economic fairness.  Now they see it for what it is:  the last gasp of the 20th century where the Mad Men era is the future, not the past.

That's good news for the Democrats at least, and the disaffected youth has launched the Occupy movement in the wake of this Tea Party curiosity...and the Tea Party's outright rejection by young voters.  Now's the time for the Democrats to make their case, because America is willing to listen again.