It’s no secret that as in 2012 a whole contingent of Republican Presidential candidates are gathering to debate each other to get the GOP nomination to run for president in 2016. This year the group is larger and are even more vocal to show that they represent the views of their core base of primary voters, the Tea Party.

We remember last time that in positioning himself as conservative Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan played directly to that Tea Party base. After the loss, an autopsy was completed and the final analysis was that the party showed no outreach to minority voters, took too far of a right wing stand on issues unpalatable to the majority of the general population and as Bobby Jindal himself said, they needed to stop being the stupid party.

Well, with this group, lessons learned are quickly lessons forgotten. This go around, an even larger group of unqualified, Tea Party sycophants are first going to billionaire funders and are now speaking praises to the position of the Tea Party so they can get their support in the primaries and caucuses.

To refresh your memories and enlighten you on who this voting base of the GOP are:

Nationwide support for the Tea Party and their ideology is now down to 22%. What’s more important, support for the Tea Party and their ideology among registered Republicans is now down to 41%

Gallop Polling:  http://www.gallup.com/poll/168917/four-years-gop-support-tea-party-down.aspx

To break down this group statistically, who despite lack of support among even Republicans the candidates are still vying for their support because they do make up the majority of primary and caucus voters:

18% of the nation identify themselves as members of the Tea Party. Of these 89% are White while only 1% are African-American. 75% are 45 years of age or older and 29% are over the age of 65. 59% are men and 41% are women. Further, 54% identify themselves with the GOP, 41% as Independent and only 5% as Democratic.

53% of the Tea Party are angry about Washington DC with 16% angry with the Affordable Care Act, 14% angry that government doesn’t represent real people, 11% angry over government spending and only 8% are angry about unemployment and the economy. This is compared to only 19% of the entire population “angry” with Washington DC to the degree the Tea Party are.

92% of the Tea Party believe that the United States is on the wrong track. Nationwide, 59% of the people think we are on the wrong track.

58% of the Tea Party own a gun or guns compared to only 35% nationwide.

88% of the Tea Party have a negative view of President Obama compared to 40% nationwide. 77% of Tea Party consider President Obama to be a “liberal” compared to 27% nationwide. 64% of the Tea Party believe that Obama has raised taxes on nearly the entire nation when in reality most of the country received a tax cut under the Obama administration.

1% of the Tea Party supports the Congress compared to 17% nationwide (which presents a problem for those in Congress running for President)

24% of the Tea Party believe that it is justified to take violent action against the United States government compared to 16% nationwide.

53% of Tea Party oppose the Roe v Wade decision compared to 34% nationwide, 30% think gun laws are too strict compared to 16% nationwide. 16% believe Whites have more advantages than African Americans compared to 31% nationwide. Further, 73% of the Tea Party think Whites and Blacks are on equal footing compared to 60% nationwide. 52% of Tea Party belief that race relations have been blown out of proportion compared to 28% nationwide.

66% of Tea Party deny Global Climate Change.

84% of the Tea Party believe their views are representative of the entire nation. However only 25% of the nation agrees with the Tea Party beliefs and 36% say they clearly do not.

CBS News Polling:  http://www.cbsnews.com/news/tea-party-supporters-who-they-are-and-what-they-believe/

So where does this place the GOP in terms of winning the White House not to mention retaining the Senate? Over the next year and more, over a dozen Republican candidates will stump for the minority views of this nation so they can win their party’s nomination. They will all be out Tea Partying each other to grab the attention of this group who although they are the base, represent a very small segment of the general voting population. Despite flip-flopping on issues as these candidates are prone to do, each campaign speech, each interview, each statement during the debates will be taped and available for Democrats to use against them. Once said, it cannot be unsaid.

By allowing the Tea Party to be their base and driving moderates and liberals away from the polls and even the party itself, the Republicans have placed themselves in an untenable situation for national office. Their base is thin and flawed compared to the majority views of the nation. Until they repair this base and go on record and heed the lesson of their autopsy from 2012, 2016 will be a major disaster to that party.

So while the GOP dig their political graves, the Democrats need to define a candidate and candidates as supportive of views shared by the majority of the nation. Stop reducing the deficit by cutting needed services of the people to pay for more tax breaks for the corporations and the wealthy. Instead support reducing the deficit and national debt by stabilizing and improving the middle and working class by taxing those at the top who have more money than they can possible spend in many life times. Get the economy growing via infrastructure repair, development of green energy to reduce global climate change. Legislate laws that guarantee equal rights for all Americans, not special rights that place some Americans over others. Campaign finance by Constitutional Amendment, the list goes on.

Polling Report:  http://www.pollingreport.com/issues.htm