Poll: Tea Party Is Wildly Out Of Touch With America

[babylonsister]

http://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p=2902

Poll: Tea Party Is Wildly Out Of Touch With America
Posted by Mark on October 5, 2010 at 3:23 pm.




A new poll (pdf) by the Public Religion Research Institute reveals what most conscious observers already knew: The views of the Tea Party are wholly removed from those of the rest of the American people.

The differences between the Tea Party and everyone else are so stark that it should give pause to any media outlet that contemplates treating the so-called movement as if it has any relevancy to current public affairs. The survey identifies a number of examples of what has been considered conventional wisdom and blasts them out of the water.

snip//

Some things we already knew, or could reasonably guess, about the Tea Party were affirmed in the survey. They are overwhelmingly white: 80%, compared to 69% of the population at large. They are concentrated in the south with 43% of their numbers residing there. And they are glued to Fox News. While only 23% of Americans overall regard Fox as their most trusted news source (about the same as CNN and the broadcast networks), two and a half times that many (57%) Tea Partiers do. That’s an even higher number than Republicans (48%) or Christian conservatives (39%).

The conclusion that is abundantly clear is that the Tea Party is a fringe cadre of extremists who have little in common with average Americans. So why do they get so much attention in the press? Well, partly because the press loves controversy, even if they have to invent it. And partly because the Republican Party is anxious to hitch its wagon to the Tea Party express in hopes of enhancing their electoral prospects.

But the main reason the Tea Party gets so much attention in the press is because they have their own press (i.e. Fox News, talk radio, etc.) that pours out their propaganda in a flood of fury, fear, and foreboding.

In the face of that Apocalyptic onslaught, it is comforting to see that majorities of Americans have not bought the snake oil being peddled by the Grand Old/Tea Party. And there is obviously still hope that the American people will surprise the media lackeys who would rather stir the pot than tell the truth.

[Botany]

1. The tea party is a 100% republican invention

W Bush made the name republican toxic so they rebranded it as Tea Party Patriots

[joeybee12]

6. Promoted by Fox News...n/t

[The Doctor.]

7. Correction; The Tea Party is a 100% insurance industry invention.

These morons have been duped into fighting for the corporations that prey upon them. As I've said before, they created a monster they will lose control of.

[Botany]

8. The insurance industry funded it and help to use it but it was being set up ...

.... before Obama got elected.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Sal_Russo

[The Doctor.]

9. Yep... and it was their own lobbyists from the start.

They went heavily pre-emptive once there was little doubt Obama would win. Medicare for all = death of insurance industry.

[ladywnch]

10. lets face it, once you hitch your wagon to the GOP, you're EVERYONES BITCH

....the insurance industry, big pharma, big oil, military industrial complex, ........they'll serve whatever industry the GOP tells them to support. Once you sign on to the GOP you sign away your brain, your ethics, and your integrity....and your checkbook......it's a requirement.

[YOY]

2. America...Grammar ...Reality...Books not written by RW pundits...post 2nd grade knowledge...

n/t

[Ozymanithrax]

3. We have government elected by a majority of those who vote.

The teaparty only needs to be in touch with that voting majority. People who don't vote, have not say and probably don't give a damn.

Should the teaparty win this for the Gipper's heirs, they will prove that they are in touch with the Americans that matter.

[The Doctor.]

4. That conclusion, although likely correct, is not well-supported by the poll.

Unless the poll can show how or why they are 'out of touch' then such a conclusion is speculative. If the poll found that most tea partiers believe Obama is a Muslim while the majority of Americans do not, then the conclusion would have support. Drawing on external information, however, we can find many other ways to support the conclusion.

[LostHighway]

5. Confirms a lot of stereotypes, and concerns

One thing that you hear sometimes is that Tea Party people are just libertarians, that they're just for small government and for fiscal responsibility. I've heard this countered to the idea that Tea Party people are semi-fascist nuts, with the suggestion being that the signs that they carry and the rhetoric that they use really aren't what they appear to be. Instead, the tea party is merely misunderstood. But libertarians on the whole would never answer questions of pollsters like the Tea Party people have. Religion isn't a big issue with them, in fact many are atheists or generally hold overly religious people in contempt--because those folks have infringed on others' liberty in the past. Particularly telling is the statistic that says that 64% of Tea Party people don't care that some folks have more opportunities in life than others. This would violate a core principle that folks who are libertarians would believe in, which is to say that the playing field should be equal so that people can rise or fall according to their own merits.

In the '90s there was a trend towards a popular small government libertarianism within some sectors, and while this too had some overtones that were suspiciously right wing, for instance ominous talk about a New World Order, in general it could be argued that the basic principles weren't over the top in the sense of being anti-democratic or anti-liberty. The Tea Party is different, and this poll helps show how exactly they're different. Not your father's libertarians.

[Scurrilous]

11. K & R

:thumbsup: