Study reveals cultural characteristics of the Tea Party movement

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-08/asa-src082111.php

Public release date: 22-Aug-2011

Contact: Daniel Fowler
[e-mail]
202-527-7885
http://www.asanet.org/">American Sociological Association

Study reveals cultural characteristics of the Tea Party movement

LAS VEGAS — American voters sympathetic to the Tea Party movement reflect four primary cultural and political beliefs more than other voters do: authoritarianism, libertarianism, fear of change, and negative attitudes toward immigrants and immigration, according to new research to be presented at the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association.

"Our findings show that the Tea Party movement can best be understood as a new cultural expression of late 20th century conservatism," said Andrew J. Perrin, an associate professor of sociology in the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill's College of Arts and Sciences, and lead author of the study, "Cultures of the Tea Party."

Findings are based on two telephone polls of registered voters in North Carolina and Tennessee (conducted May 30-June 3, 2010 and Sept. 29-Oct. 3, 2010), and a set of interviews and observations at a Tea Party movement rally in Washington, N.C. Nearly half of poll respondents (46 percent) felt favorably toward the Tea Party movement.

Researchers found that respondents who felt positively toward the Tea Party movement held the following primary cultural and political dispositions more often than other voters did:

• Authoritarianism: respondents believe that obedience by children is more important than creativity, and that deference to authority is an important value.


• Libertarianism: respondents believe there should not be regulations or limitations on expressions such as clothing, television shows, and musical lyrics.


• Fear of change/ontological insecurity: respondents sense that things are changing too fast or too much.


• Nativism: respondents hold negative attitudes toward immigrants and immigration.

…

[Raven]

1. Fear of change is an interesting one especially since that was

a main theme of Obama's campaign.

Interesting that racism was not found to be a characteristic too.

[CanonRay]

2. How do you squeeze Authoritarianism and Libertarianism

into the same brain. It must take a lot of twisting.

[enlightenment]

3. That was my first thought.

I really feel sorry for their children; it must be like having Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for parents.

[vssmith]

5. Right and Libertarianism and fear of change--strange

[whathehell]

7. Yes, I found that weird as well....I somehow thought that Teabaggers are

and Libertarians did not overlap much.

[Recursion]

9. Notice it's about family life... older white guys who want to feel authority

I'm usually skeptical of broad-brush sociology, but I've met enough bitter, controlling, 50-something men complaining about taxes and child custody cases that they really have formed a "tea party type" in my mind, perhaps unfairly, but certainly strongly.

[LiberalLoner]

12. I agree, this is what I've seen. Men who grew up believing they were king and god and have been

finding out more and more, they really AREN'T. And they don't get to make women slaves and people of color slaves. And they bitterly resent all of that. They are mostly filled with hate, from what I've seen. A blind selfishness, feeling they should be on top of the pile so to speak, and corrosive hatred and brutality.

[DirkGently]

4. So (those who aren't corp-owned) are ... Republicans. With a faint whiff of weak libertariansim.

[Bonhomme Richard]

6. It seems all 4 are based in fear. I'm not surprised. n/t

[mopinko]

8. the walking wounded and the senile.

sigh

[starroute]

10. The Tea Party is a mix of Ron Paul types and the religious right

So perhaps the authoritarianism and the libertarianism don't exist in the same individuals.

These two groups have been able to make common cause on a lot of issues. They're both anti-government, though for different reasons -- the libertarians because they're anti-authority and the authoritarians because they want more control down at the personal level of family and community. This leads them to support many of the same positions, such as school vouchers.

But there are also long-standing and still-remembered conflicts between the traditionalists and the libertarians, going back to the 1960's, and it wouldn't take much of a change in the political climate to split them apart.

[Recursion]

11. I see two distinct tea party phases

The first, anti-TARP, phase that caught everybody by surprise was surprisingly diverse and young when you look at the old footage, compared to what it turned into. Some of the 20-somethings I know who got into it felt muscled out the next spring as the resentment bandwagon ran over the tea party.

[That Political Shizz]

13. Tea Party

I agree with Maxine Waters about where they can go.