If you thought it was bad before, the image of the Tea Party — a key imagine now defining the entire Republican Party — has gotten much worse. That’s the latest in a new Pew Research Center poll:
The Tea Party is less popular than ever, with even many Republicans now viewing the movement negatively. Overall, nearly half of the public (49%) has an unfavorable opinion of the Tea Party, while 30% have a favorable opinion.
The balance of opinion toward the Tea Party has turned more negative since June, when 37% viewed it favorably and 45% had an unfavorable opinion. And the Tea Party’s image is much more negative today than it was three years ago, shortly after it emerged as a conservative protest movement against Barack Obama’s policies on health care and the economy.
See my take on the Tea Party’s new image HERE. Pew finds that the Tea Party image has deteriorated across the boards but has had a HUGE drop among liberal and moderate Republicans:
The Tea Party’s favorability rating has fallen across most groups since June, but the decline has been particularly dramatic among moderate and liberal Republicans. In the current survey, just 27% of moderate and liberal Republicans have a favorable impression of the Tea Party, down from 46% in June.
……The survey finds wide divisions between Tea Party Republicans and non-Tea Party Republicans in how they view major issues, some leading GOP figures and even the relationship between the Republican Party and the Tea Party itself. Tea Party Republicans are more likely than non-Tea Party Republicans to say that the Tea Party is part of the GOP, rather than a separate movement (41% vs. 27%).
Amid the continuing budget standoff between Republican leaders and the White House, opinions about House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell have slipped among all Republicans and Republican leaners – both those who agree with the Tea Party and those who do not.
Meanwhile, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s popularity has zoomed — among Tea Partiers:
By contrast, Sen. Ted Cruz’s popularity has soared among Tea Party Republicans while declining among non-Tea Party Republicans. Since July, as Cruz’s visibility has increased, his favorable rating among Tea Party Republicans has risen by 27 points – from 47% to 74%.
In July, Cruz’s image was mixed among non-Tea Party Republicans (26% favorable, 16% unfavorable); most (58%) had no opinion of the Texas Republican. Unfavorable opinions of Cruz among non-Tea Party Republicans have risen 15 points since then, while favorable views are unchanged.
And the Tea Party is proving to be a uniter rather than a divider: many groups in the electorate agree that they don’t like it:
The decline in favorable views of the Tea Party over the past four months crosses party lines – Republicans, independents and Democrats all offer more negative assessments today than in June.
For Republicans, the decline is steepest among those who describe themselves as moderate or liberal. Today, Moderate Republicans Less Positive toward Tea Partyonly about a quarter (27%) of moderate and liberal Republicans have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party movement, down 19 points from June. Yet the Tea Party’s ratings have also declined among conservative Republicans, from 74% favorable in June to 65% now.
Very Unfavorable Views of Tea Party Have Tripled Since 2010And although the proportion of Democrats with an unfavorable opinion of the Tea Party has changed little since June, these opinions have grown stronger—about half (51%) of Democrats now say they have a very unfavorable opinion of the Tea Party; in June 40% said this.
Nationwide, 30% now say they have a very unfavorable opinion, up from 24% in June and just 10% in 2010. Meanwhile, the share expressing a very favorable opinion stands at 9% and is little changed over the past three years.
This likely means:
**Democrats will try to link the words “Tea Party” to the party, which is accurate due to its huge clout in the House, backed up by powerful talk show hosts who say GOPers who compromise are weak and “cave” and don’t adhere to principles.
**Democrats will love to link the party with Cruz, who may have raised millions and is loved by Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, but anathema now to many Americans — including many Republicans.
**The civil war within the GOP will accelerate as Tea Partiers, funded and threatened by powerful far right groups, keep up the battle among those who’ve “gone moderate” (i.e. compromised or embraced consensus politics over the politics of power politics and demonization).
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.