Is the tea party dead?

[darrmad]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...the-tea-party/

The tea party is at a crossroads.
Almost four years removed from its initial stirrings, the tea party movement finds itself riven by internal discord, without some of its most prominent leaders and faced with a party establishment that seems ready to abandon it — or at least buck its wishes — in the face of the 2012 election results.
“The Tea party has the opportunity to remain a leading force in American politics, but to do so, it must mature, take the next step and prove it can be part of a coalition that can actually govern,” said Jesse Benton, a longtime adviser to retiring Rep. Ron Paul and now campaign manager for Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell’s 2014 re-election race. “After two cycles, it’s not enough to just be the angry people waving Gadsden Flags and yelling about Washington.”

Defeated Florida Rep. Allen West. Harry Hamburg/AP

There’s little debate that the last few months have been among the toughest of the tea party’s (relatively) brief existence.
To wit:
* Freedomworks, one of the leading pillars of the tea party movement, appears to be in the midst of a major internal squabble — with former Texas Rep. Dick Armey leaving the organization on what appears to be not-so-good terms.
* Reps. Allen West (R-Fla.) and Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), two of the leading tea party figures in Congress, both lost re-election bids on Nov. 6. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) narrowly escaped defeat against an unheralded challenger. And tea party favorites like Todd Akin (Akin was never a tea party favorite and most tea party aligned groups backed his opponents in the Republican primary) and Richard Mourdock lost what should have been sure-thing Senate races in Missouri and Indiana, respectively.

[Cindy]

They are just more politicians. No different than the Dems or GOP.

[Pressing-On]

At least Dick Armey is leaving instead of lying. And I like Allen West, but he needs to temper his words. He came across, many times, as a bit too caustic and combative.

As far as the Tea Party goes, it's a fragmented group with no leader. The only thing each group had in common was fiscal responsibility and it woke up the country on that premise. So, all in all, it wasn't and isn't a bad thing. And no, I don't think it is dead.

You just might see Jim DeMint corral it into a larger movement.

[Originalist]

It's not dead at all. It's shedding itself of the GOP co-opting. Guys like Dick Armey just wanted to sabotage it. I predict Ron Paul is going to pull it all together a viable 3rd party. Paul won't run for President again, however.

[Esaias]

If Jesse Benton is involved, yes, it's dead.