The LA Times has a nice opinion piece today analyzing the NY Times/CBS poll of the Tea Party Movement. I recommend you read it. I’ve been itching all week to comment on the NY Times poll, and this article really captures the essence of what I was going to say:
As it turns out, fewer than 1 in 5 Americans “supports” the tea party movement in any respect, and just 4% of all adult Americans have contributed to it or attended one of its events or both. (On any given day, you probably could drum up twice as many people who think the Pentagon is hiding dead aliens in Area 51.)
Of the 18% of all adults who expressed support for the tea party, the overwhelming majority were white (89%), male (59%) Republicans over age 45 (75%) and significantly more affluent and better educated than the majority of Americans. One in five has an annual income greater than $100,000, and 37% have advanced degrees. More than 9 out of 10 think President Obama is pushing the country into “socialism.”
The survey also found that more than half of the tea party supporters say “the policies of the administration favor the poor, and 25% think that the administration favors blacks over whites — compared with 11% of the general public.”
By the way, as to the socialism belief, the card-carrying socialists don’t think Obama is one. If anyone would know, they would.
Is there a problem in Washington DC? Yes, but the problem isn’t President Obama or even President Bush. The problem is the partisanship that has led to gridlock in Congress, the notion that the “other party” can’t come up with ideas, and we can’t find compromise to move the country forward. The Tea Party is not the answer to that.
