Citizens' Daily Lobby

The Tea Party looks a lot like the GOP because it IS largely a Republican group.  A recent Gallup poll finds that a whopping 62% of Tea Party “Patriots” self-identify as conservative Republicans.  17% consider themselves to be moderate or liberal Republicans.  Only 7% identify as truly independent.  This means that 79% of Tea Partiers are Republicans, and, indeed, 80% of those polled say they will vote for their local GOP candidates this fall.  (As continuing evidence of irrationality in modern America, 15% of those polled identify themselves as Democrats.  Here in Arkansas, we call those people “Lincoln voters”).

The Tea Party is a GOP re-branding effort targeted to capture the hearts and minds (such as they are) of the politically dispossessed, while keeping the party’s real platform safely in the hands of the political class and the corporate elite.