I noticed about a year ago a poll. What it generally said about people attracted to the Tea Party was that it was a simplified listing of priorities. The shocker, I felt, was that even three percent of extreme liberal Democrats...found the Tea Party enticing, while around twenty percent of conservative Democrats were agreeable to the platform of the Tea Party.
What worries the big players of the Democratic and Republican parties....is that it’s not really a Republican theme. Both could easily lose Representatives, Governors, Senators, and even a Presidential race....based on perception of Tea Party values. Just turning three percent of the Democratic vote in one state....is a major accomplishment.
I don’t think the Tea Party concept is really going away. Even with big wins for the Republicans in the Senate for 2014....I think it only puts the remaining Republican Senators running in 2016 into a very tough position (some won’t be able to win in the primary or the main election) because of Tea Party opposition.
It was that way with my wife's family, traditional Democrats before I entered the picture. It took me, and a sister-in-law, about a decade to convert them from Democrats to Republicans. Of course, we were helped immensely by the stridency of pro-abortion types, and other liberals.