The Tea Party drove the GOP too far from the center to win the presidential election. On the other hand, the GOP got almost half of the popular vote. The GOP may try to reform itself a bit but it has essentially become the Tea Party. There is really nothing new about the Tea Party. It was called different things at different times in our history whenever a Democrat was in the White House. The Koch family was originally a major factor in the John Birch society. It focused on promoting far right ideas and it fell out of favor when it called Dwight Eisenhower a communist. The Koch family now calls Obama a socialist, instead of a sitting GOP president, and that seems to work for them. It has also included a focus on developing an electoral base by organizing the Tea Party. That has worked well for them in the South and in rural counties.
The Democratic Party can't assume that the Tea Party will go away entirely. It has to a better job of showing a lot of disaffected Americans that they are a better alternative to the Tea Party. For example, they have done a poor job of selling American's on Obamacare. The majority of American's don't really understand it and it is still unpopular.
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