NY Times: Poll Finds Tea Party Anger Rooted in Issues of Class

NY Times ^ | April 14, 2010 | By KATE ZERNIKE and MEGAN THEE-BRENAN

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Tea party supporters are wealthier and more well-educated than the general public, tend to be Republican, white, male, and married, and their strong opposition to the Obama administration is more rooted in political ideology than anxiety about their personal economic situation, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

The 18 percent of Americans who identify themselves as Tea Party supporters look like Republicans in many ways, but they hold more conservative views on a range of issues and tend to be older than Republicans generally. They are also more likely than Republicans as a whole to describe themselves as “very conservative” and President Obama as “very liberal.”

And while most Republicans say they are “dissatisfied” with Washington, Tea Party supporters are more likely to classify themselves as “angry.”

Speculation and anecdotal evidence have often taken the place of concrete data about who supports the Tea Party movement, and the poll offers some surprising findings.

Their fierce animosity toward Washington, and the president in particular, is rooted in deep pessimism about the direction of the country and the conviction that the policies of the Obama administration are disproportionately directed at helping the poor rather than the middle class or the rich.

The overwhelming majority of Tea Party supporters say Mr. Obama does not share the values most Americans live by, and that he does not understand the problems of people like themselves.

[Recovering_Democrat]

damn, and you’re in Minnesota too?

[Misterioso]

New to our language?

[TexasCajun]

That's because WE ARE TAXPAYERS !!!

The producers are tired of paying for the non-producers and government waste!

[Voter62vb]

Good for you for bringing that up. I’m surprised the NYT didn’t attribute the Tea Party Roots to something Tina Fey said while in parodizing Sarah Palin...

[GVnana]

BWAHAHAHA! These people (Times) are ridiculous...

[budwiesest]

That's why I'm glad Sarah P. is attacking the media, straight up. Let's face it, their M.O. is direct, frontal assault. Trying to "play nice" is pointless, and a recipe for defeat.

So glad you chimed in with this. We need a lioness ('cause the lions ain't showing up, apparently) this time to rip the jackels and hyenas from America's carcass before it's too late.

Pravada will do it's level best to discredit Sarah at every turn, but she'll keep fighting back. They've misunderestimated her by a mile. And, they've underestimated me.

I've no more use for a lying media. I've no more use for politicians who want to 'reach across the aisle'.

America's place in the world is very rare and my dad didn't fight WWII so it could be plowed-over by socialists. What, he won so we could lose? No way.

Correcting our present situation can go two ways: the ugly way and the not-so ugly way.

The socialist way will be the most painful, especially among those who haven't the skills to produce anything. The capitalist way will harm mostly government types and union members whose pensions and retirements are already suspect (given our indebtedness) and whose lavishness should have raised suspicions all along.

The question for the next twenty years or so ought to be: "Who you want to hurt?" It's gonna be somebody, why not face the facts?

[reader25]

Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah. NY Times/CBS do their polls by deciding what outcome they want, then generate questions to support that outcome.

Once that is done the pollsters start calling and asking pre-qualifying questions until they get the demographic that will answer the questions in a way to support that predetermined outcome.

So the poll is worthless and serves to divide our efforts to change this country back to what out founders has envisioned which is to adhere to the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

[miliantnutcase]

Good post. ;-D

[Need4Truth]

Some defended being on Social Security while fighting big government by saying that since they had paid into the system, they deserved the benefits.

Others could not explain the contradiction.

I'd gladly take back all my FICA payments adjusted for inflation and give up the "benefits".

[livius]

Hussein cultists are poorer and more less-educated than the general public...[etc.]

LOL! Great job, and accurate, too!

[denydenydeny]

...and the [TEA party] conviction that the policies of the Obama administration are disproportionately directed at helping the poor rather than the middle class or the rich.

What a total straw-man, sockpuppet sentence. I challenge this idiot to find ANYONE on our side who wants the government to "help" the middle class or the rich.

For us, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help" is nothing but a sick joke.

What we want is the government out of our lives. Period.

[jch10]

A WSJ reporter rode our bus to DC last September to interview us. He wrote a nice long article for the paper but he didn’t get it, even then, and chose to spotlight and quote the HS grads, which was fine but we had doctors, a lawyer, teachers, small business owners, etc that he skipped over.

It was clear he had an agenda.

[Oceander]

B.S.

[darkangel82]

NY Slimes= Obama knob-polishers. Fail.

[April Lexington]

Younger tea partiers are busy working their butts off to pay the bills. The older tea partiers have the time to attend the rallies. Bad sampling methods...

[gore_sux_2000]

Yep, I’m in MN too :( Born and raised here and love the state, just not the fruitcake libs and politicians.

[SunkenCiv]

Tea party supporters are wealthier and more well-educated than the general public, tend to be Republican, white, male, and married, and their strong opposition to the Obama administration is more rooted in political ideology than anxiety about their personal economic situation...

Speaking of "more rooted in political ideology than anxiety about their personal economic situation":

"All my friends are rich leftists who have never held jobs -- other than Soros, who's worked hard to fleece rich folks out of their money, and gone to prison for it."

[Bryan24]

Let’s cut to the chase here and speak some truth.

The Tea Party Movement is made up of mostly, but not all, of middle and upper middle class people. Most ARE white.

The truth?

The Tea Party movement is the reaction of people to the government taking their money and giving it to people who don’t work, or, giving it to peple who don’t need a handout.

We’ve had enough.

God told the Children of Israel to set aside 10%. That 10% took care of the government and the religious activities.

If 10% (income taxes + SS Tax) was good enough for God, it ought to be good enough for the Federal Government.

[freekitty]

Sorry mo. Just as I said. It was an email from a friend and that’s all it said. Take it for what it’s worth. If you can find anything; please let me know.

[edzo4]

look at all the racists at the tea party, LOL

http://www.bostonherald.com/galleries/index.php?gallery_id=3716&p=3

http://www.bostonherald.com/galleries/index.php?gallery_id=3716&p=4