GOP getting the Tea Party message better

Salena Zito:

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People have not gravitated toward Tea Party events because they want to compare the latest in anti-oxidant tea brands. Yes, some of it is about feeling angry but more of it is about feeling disconnected.

Both political parties are in trouble but Democrats more so than Republicans – because Democrats do not appear to be listening.

Losing typically makes parties and candidates better; they become sharper, more aware of the public's mood.

Yet the liberal blogosphere is awash with commentators saying that the Democrats’ problem is not that they lost independent voters in opinion polls and in Massachusetts’ election; it is that they haven't catered enough to the liberal base.

This fight has been going on among Democrats since the Democratic Leadership Committee was founded in 1985. But the problem is not that their party is not "liberal" enough. The problem is that their party ignores what independents care about: fiscal responsibility and limited, effective government providing more liberty – more "independence," if you will.

That is what Ross Perot ran on. That’s what President Bill Clinton pivoted to after 1994, and what made independents back away from President George W. Bush and the GOP after 2005.

And it’s what is making them back away from Obama and Democrats now.

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She says the Democrats are still focused on a base strategy, but the fact is their base is shrinking because of the liberal policies of the administration. Scott Brown got 20 percent of the Democrat vote. It was enough to put him over the top with the GOP vote and the overwhelming support of independents. Getting that 20 percent in the middle is the key to victory.