Is the Tea Party dead?

Dear Republican Party,

I honestly believe you could have won this year’s presidential election if you had not been so willing to pander to the ultra right wing Teabagger fringe.

Why?  Well, I get the feeling that the Tea Party is dead. The moderates and even conservative moderates seem to be sick and tired of the blathering of this tunnel vision group.

I live in Utah, the reddest state in the union.  72.8% of our voters cast their ballots for Mitt Romney, more than any other state.  Yet no more than a lone Tea Party candidate made it through the Utah Republican primaries, and in the end Mia Love couldn’t even beat Democrat Jim Matheson in a gerrymandered 4^th District custom made for a Republican win.  Half of Utah County (home of Gayle herself), part of Juab and Sanpete counties and the more conservative south west part of Salt Lake County preferred a Democrat over a Tea Partier.  To me that says a lot about the popularity of extreme ultra-conservatism.

Now, I’m not saying that conservatism in general isn’t still strong, and I’m not even saying they are always wrong.  But I am saying that the semi-literate, foaming-at-the mouth Gayle Ruzicka lovin’ fringe of the Republican Party is scaring a big part of the more rational majority into the arms of the Democrats.

I truly believe that if the Republicans jettison the Teabaggers and put forth a more rational, compromising and moderate front *(ala Jon Huntsman Jr.), they well could well retake the Whitehouse in 2016.

Hell, even I was considering voting for Huntsman had it been him against Obama this year.  I voted for him twice as Governor of Utah.