This is incoherent and bad history to boot.
Are the massive gains the GOP has made in Congress and states no big deal (as you imply in the first paragraphs), or a model of how Democrats should operate (as you claim subsequently)?
Your reading of the Tea Party’s history is wildly at odds with reality. The Tea Party formed explicitly to oppose what were seen as the liberal economic project of the Obama administration. Yes, they were louder in their cruelty on social issues, but that was not their raison d’etre. Once in office, Tea Party legislators took as their primary project the dismantling of the safety net. In Congress, this meant playing fast and loose will the debt ceiling, forcing sequestration and extending tax cuts for the wealthy. On the state level, it’s best exemplified by the viciousness of Scott Walker’s attitude toward unions.
And the mainstream GOP did capitulate to the Tea Party and other fringe elements, most clearly seen in the resignation of John Boehner and the endorsement of Donald Trump by all the respectable tribunes of moderate conservatism. But more importantly, the Tea Party agenda is now the agenda of the GOP.
The GOP may look divided, but let’s not pretend it hasn’t been totally overrun by the radicals.
