Mad As Hell: How the Tea Party Movement Is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System

The riotous tea parties and angry town hall meetings of the past few years have thrown American politics into turmoil. Americans should have seen this revolt coming: populist movements have always arisen in times of economic hardship and uncertainty. In Mad As Hell, pollsters Scott Rasmussen and Douglas Schoen use extensive and original research to explore the mind and heart of this populist uprising and explain how it is reshaping American politics—whether politicians and elite journalists like it or not.

The Tea Party movement is an authentic grassroots movement of concerned American citizens demanding to be heard by an out-of-touch political establishment. Their concerns are real and their issues are legitimate, the authors maintain; moreover, the new populism is here to stay, and it has already changed our politics for the better.

In Mad As Hell, Rasmussen and Schoen have produced an authoritative guide to the new populism, featuring a combination of proprietary polling data, political analysis, results from online focus groups, and interviews with on-the-ground players. This updated edition includes a new afterword, featuring data and analysis from the November 2010 midterm elections and what we should look for in the 2012 elections. It is a must-read for anyone interested in American electoral politics.