( CNN ) -- After the tea party 's poor showing in the 2012 elections , many in the political world declared the movement dead . After all , it had lost one-sixth of its members in Congress and at least two Senate seats by running questionable candidates . Plus , the tea party did n't get its way on the debt ceiling , and the Paul Ryan budget failed to get much traction . Recent CNN polls , however , suggest that gaffes by the Obama administration are breathing new life into the tea party movement . In a CNN poll conducted in March , 28 % of the voting-age public supported the tea party . Now , however , in the wake of the recent controversies involving the administration -- especially the one about the Internal Revenue Service -- support is on the rise . According to a CNN poll released May 20 , 37 % of the public now supports the movement , a level that approaches the high-water mark the tea party achieved in 2010 . Why the increase in popularity ? It 's simple : The IRS scandal resonates with the tea party faithful because it fits so well the meme the movement has pushed since the early days of the administration : An Obama-led government is too big , too fiscally irresponsible . First , there was the movement 's resistance to the stimulus package , claiming the government spent too much to revive the economy . Then , of course , was the tea party 's opposition to health care reform : Again , government had grown too big , spending excessively . And that some people would be forced by the government to purchase insurance or else face a tax , for tea partiers , was further proof of Obama-led governmental tyranny . Now , the IRS scandal permits the tea party to highlight how the administration is overreaching and meddling in the lives of Americans . But here 's the thing : Most political scandals do n't last very long . Those involving the president , or officials in his administration , tend to have a shelf life of six months . As it stands , we 're not even six months beyond the most recent election cycle . So the likelihood that the tea party -- and therefore Republicans -- can leverage the recent scandals to their political advantage is n't great if the next election cycle ( 2014 ) is the target . If the tea party and Republicans wish to make political hay that will carry them through 2014 , they must return their gaze to the substantive policy issues that tend to mobilize their supporters : Immigration reform and same-sex marriage are two examples . Indeed , opposition to immigrant rights and same-sex rights has proven effective for rallying the base . The problem is that if the tea party returns to issues proven to fire up the base it will violate at least two of its major tenets : fiscal prudence and smaller government . For instance , the tea party 's position on immigration reform would increase government spending to the tune of $ 28 billion per year to secure the border . In the case of same-sex rights , the state is called upon to regulate marriage . This would seem to contradict the tea party 's claim that it 's all about fiscal prudence and small government . How can this be ? In other words , how can the tea party and its supporters favor small and large government ? The paradox is easily resolved once we consider the motives of many tea party supporters . They see America changing too rapidly , both demographically and culturally . American identity is generally identified as white and heterosexual , among other things . Thus , it should n't come as a shock that despite their declared preference for small government , many in the tea party embrace big government when necessary . It 's perhaps the most effective way to police what they perceive as encroachments upon the `` American '' way of life in which white racial identity and heterosexuality remain the norm . Like American reactionary movements of the past , the tea party resists change of any kind . For tea party loyalists , the long and short of it is as follows . In President Barack Obama 's first term , the government spent too much ; so far , in his second , the government is meddling too much . The problem for the tea party is that the benefits extracted from these missteps will likely be short-lived , certainly not enough to last until the next election cycle . Is n't it ironic that to sustain support through 2014 , and to have a shot at the White House , the tea party will have to push policy solutions to important issues that rely upon bigger -- not smaller -- government ? The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Christopher S. Parker .
Christopher Parker : Recent administration controversies have boosted tea party in polls . He says to maintain support , tea party must make dust-up last till 2014 elections . It could return to issues that fire base : immigration , opposition to same-sex marriage , he says . Parker : Stopping same-sex marriage , boosting border flout party 's small government mantra .