This year, the Tea Party’s Tax Day protests failed to draw the crowds they had just last year. Just a few hundred showed up, in a few chosen places, while years past saw thousands. Is the Tea Party phenomenon over?

With the Tea Party on the way out, The Nation’s Chris Hayes says on The Rachel Maddow Show that Congress no longer needs to push policies farther right in order to appease the most extreme right-wingers. The Democrats have the numbers, both in the Senate and rallying on the streets in places like Madison. It’s time they take advantage of that, Hayes says.

—Sara Jerving