The CBS news poll on Tea Partiers is really interesting, and should be looked at by Tea Party supporters and those that aren't part of the movement (IE: everyone should look at it) because it is eye opening in view of how much attention they are getting.
Tea Partiers insist they speak for the majority of Americans when in fact Tea Party activists and supporters are no more than 18% of Americans in total.
Some of the most surprising (and not so surprising) things in the poll are:
*84% of TP (stands for Tea Partiers from here on out) say "the views of the Tea Party movement reflect the views of most Americans. But Americans overall disagree: Just 25 percent say the Tea Party movement reflects their beliefs, while 36 percent say it does not." (I have no idea what the rest of the 39% believe: 'sorta, maybe, I don't drink tea'?)
*The Tea Party People statistics: 59% are men, 75% are between the age of 45 and 65, 89% are white, only 20% make over 100K a year, 58% have guns, 73% are conservative, 61% are Protestant (39% of those are Evangelical), 22% are Catholic, 37% have a college education (which is higher than the national average of 25%), 48% usually vote Republican/18% always vote Republican/25% equally vote for both parties/5% are democrats...and 1 of 3 are from the south (36%)
*88% of TP disapprove of President Obama's performance compared to 40% of Americans in general. -- "Asked to volunteer what they don't like about Mr. Obama, the top answer, offered by 19 percent of Tea Party supporters, was that they just don't like him. 11 percent said he is turning the country more toward socialism, 10 percent cited his health care reform efforts, and 9 percent said he is dishonest."
*77% of TP concider Obama to be "very liberal" compared to 31% of Americans in general.
*53% of TP are "angry" about the way things are going in Washington compared to 19% of Americans in general.
*16% of TP say whites have more opportunities to get ahead, compared to 31% of Americans in general. 73% of TP say both have equal opportunity, compared to 60% of Americans in general. 52% of TP believe too much has been made of the problems facing black people while 28% of Americans in general believe the same.
*53% of TP are against Roe vs Wade compared to 34% of Americans in general.
*64% of TP say Obama has raised taxes, while only 34% of Americans in general think the same, even though Obama has cut taxes for most Americans . However, 52% of TP think their taxes are fair. (erm)
*"63 percent say they get the majority of their political and current events news on television from the Fox News Channel, compared to 23 percent of Americans overall." (if this isn't evidence of rabble rousing on Fox's part, I don't know what is -- Rupert Murdoch, you are a little late trying in to distance the channel from the Tea Party seeing as it is what is fanning the flames.)
So, what I am seeing is a small group of middle-aged middle-class white Republicans/conservatives who need to lay off watching Fox for awhile and get over the fact that Obama won (now they know how I felt when Dubya won). They need to realize that they don't speak for 'most' Americans, are being riled up for ratings (and by Patriot groups who have a dire vision for the US). They need to do some fact checking of their own instead of being told what to think by talking heads and cults of personality. Google is a great tool for independent and (even objective) sources of information. All that anger is becoming dangerous, and it is getting anger and fear in return. It is also encouraging wingnuts to become home-grown terrorists. What I keep thinking from all this is "There will be tears before bedtime."
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