Republicans have been TRYING to open the government, but Harry Reid has been successful in keeping the shut down going.
The only people that really care who is at fault are the politicians because all they care about is who is going to win the next election. The citizens of this country always come out the loser. The reason I back the TEA PARTY is they want to cut the size of government which means spend less money. All the bad publicity the TEA PARTY gets is coming from both the dems and repubs because it goes against their policy of taking more and more form the American people and gathering more power. Most people at some time have said it's time for the citizens to stand up and form a party that represents them and that's how the TEA PARTY came to be. The reason they don't have an organized party with clear leaders is it's made up of a bunch of like minded people that have not yet organized which so far has kept it from being corrupted. Somebody needs to speak for the people and the dems and repubs sure don't do that
The Tea Party is being rejected by Dem's, Repub's and independents, the mass's so to speak, because after watching them for several years, the conclusion has been reached that they do not consider the consequences of their knee jerk ideas. Their ideology is based of fraudulent spins and talking points. They are expert at pointing out problems, but horrible at finding solutions to solve those problems. In addition, they have proven themselves to be unable to govern. They cause infighting and endless squabbles amoungst themselves and their allies. Finally, they are completely dependent financially on support from the wealthiest people in society. Even their most patriotic ideas are corrupted by the dependence they have on satisfying billionairs.