The Tea Party didn't exist until January 2009. If they had any issue with how straight ticket Republicans like you and I wanted things they would have invented themselves long before then.
The TP still, obviously, does not "exist" as a political entity. That's the media's way of branding people who still believe in the Consitution and "normal" ways of conducting government. It's a philosophy,a way of thinking about how government should be run, what it should and should not do,and it has always existed in this country.
The problem today is that so many people are so badly educated, unfounded in governing principles,and lacking any political/philosophical foundations after years of left wing indoctrination, that mainstream Republicans are hard to distinguish from Democrats; and the Democrats have become fascist/socialists.
I have never seen it so bad and it seems to get worse every year. The country today is run by people with heads full of manure and are utterly without scruples.
Of course the Dems are going to worry who will protect them....they are fundamentally cowards,and always look to someone else to do their dirty work.
