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According to a recent poll, only 22% of Americans consider themselves tea party members or supporters, half the number of last November. And of that 22%, two-thirds supported a debt ceiling compromise and more than half thought it should include tax increases as well as spending cuts:

In a nationwide CBS News poll in mid-July, 66 percent of Tea Party supporters said that Republicans in Congress should compromise on some of their positions to come to an agreement with Democrats on the debt-ceiling increase. By contrast, 31 percent said Republicans should stick to their positions even if it meant not coming to an agreement….When Tea Party supporters were asked if the debt-ceiling agreement should include only tax increases, only spending cuts, or a combination of both, the majority — 53 percent — said that it should include a combination. Forty-five percent preferred only spending cuts.

So who was driving the absolutist view in Congress over the past few months? If it was the no-compromise wing of the tea party, that’s less than 10% of the country. So riddle me this: how did we manage to let 10% of the country bring us to the brink of disaster? It is a remarkable thing.