What the tea party has successfully accomplished is pulling much of the republican party even further to the right, and destroyed the concept of compromise. They over represent the party in primaries and caucuses, nominating the most extreme candidates and pulling more moderate candidates to the far right in order to gain their support. These candidates get elected in reliably republican states, and gerrymandered districts, but lose in evenly contested elections, where a moderate may have won. Sarah Palin cost John McCain a good chance to be president. The tea party claims to be a middle to lower middle class grass roots uprising, but is largely funded by billionaires who care nothing about those people but only care about reducing their taxes and eliminating environmental and safety regulations.