Tea Party Supporters: Who They Are and What They Believe

[RamboLiberal]

CBS/NY Times

Eighteen percent of Americans identify as Tea Party supporters. The vast majority of them -- 89 percent -- are white. Just one percent is black.

They tend to skew older: Three in four are 45 years old or older, including 29 percent who are 65 plus. They are also more likely to be men (59 percent) than women (41 percent).

More than one in three (36 percent) hails from the South, far more than any other region. Twenty-five percent come from the West, 22 percent from the Midwest, and 18 percent from the northeast.

They are better educated than most Americans: 37 percent are college graduates, compared to 25 percent of Americans overall. They also have a higher-than-average household income, with 56 percent making more than $50,000 per year.

More than half (54 percent) identify as Republicans, and another 41 percent say they are independents. Just five percent call themselves Democrats, compared to 31 percent of adults nationwide.

Nearly three in four describe themselves as conservative, and 39 percent call themselves very conservative. Sixty percent say they always or usually vote Republican. Forty percent say the United States needs a third party, while 52 percent say it does not.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20002529-503544.html?tag=stack

[JuniperLea]

1. And 75% of them lie on polls... eom

[Webster Green]

5. No shit, I was typing the same thing while you were posting.

We're friggin' brilliant! :think:

[maxsolomon]

2. yeah, what KIND of college degree?

Animal Husbandry or PolySci? you can have a technical degree and be utterly ignorant of how things are.

[emilyg]

8. I know 2 physicians and

1 very high up CDC worker who are in tea party.

[maxsolomon]

11. physicians aren't always well versed in Marx

or the Humanities. Or Empathy, even though it's kind of a job requirement. i've heard orthopedice surgeons described as "body mechanics". often, conservative doctors see their personal story as "triumph over adversity through hard work", and can't see the help they got - med school is, in fact, a socialist endeavor - the many ways our society subsidizes the making of doctors.

anyway, my point is that they lack global thinking.

[bluethruandthru]

3. And if they wouldn't have choked on it......

100 percent of them would have claimed to be Democrats! I'm also pretty suspicious of that "better educated" statistic too!

[Webster Green]

4. I don't even know how you can poll a group who lies about everything.

Wouldn't the poll be skewed by the fact that the people being surveyed are known liars? Wouldn't they lie to the pollster, since they lie about everything else?

I'm serious.

On the other hand, if they are actually better educated than average, then there's no excuse for their stupid behavior. It must be racism.

[RamboLiberal]

6. And the fact that they are older

There are a lot of racists and homo phobes in the boomer and older generation. From what I've seen of the teabaggers I'd say this poll is somewhat accurate.

[mmonk]

7. I don't need a poll to tell me who they are or what they believe.

I know too well.

[d_r]

9. there is some very interesting stuff in here

"Sixty-three 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. Forty-seven percent say television is their main source of Tea Party information, the top source; another 24 percent say they get Tea Party information from the internet. "

"Thirty percent of Tea Party supporters believe Mr. Obama was born in another country, despite ample evidence to the contrary. Another 29 percent say they don't know. Twenty percent of Americans overall, one in five, believe the president was not born in the United States."

"Sixty-four percent believe that the president has increased taxes for most Americans, despite the fact that the vast majority of Americans got a tax cut under the Obama administration. Thirty-four percent of the general public says the president has raised taxes on most Americans. "

"An overwhelming majority of Tea Party supporters, 84 percent, 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. "


It seems like those four things go together to me.

[Initech]

10. How can they be educated yet so ignorant?

[Bitwit1234]

12. I want to know one thing

what colleges did the go to...if they tell the truth please please don't send your kids there. They produce the dumbest damn bunch of people on the planet earth...

[RagAss]

13. Common Racists.

[Doctor_J]

14. Snark - CBS and NY Times are telling me about teabaggers?

I can't remember which was more Pro-Bush/pro-war.