Tea Party Activists Not Your Average Americans

[Bfgrn]

By Alan Fram

- Associated Press

"Tea party" backers fashion themselves as "we the people," but polls show the Republican Party's most conservative and energized voters are hardly your average crowd.

According to an Associated Press-GfK Poll this month, 84 percent who call themselves tea party supporters don't like how President Obama is handling his job a view shared by just 35 percent of all other adults. Tea partiers are about four times likelier than others to back repealing Mr. Obama's health care overhaul and twice as likely to favor renewing tax cuts for the highest-earning Americans.

Exit polls of voters in this month's congressional elections reveal similar gulfs. Most tea party supporters 86 percent want less government intrusion on people and businesses, but only 35 percent of other voters said so. Tea party backers were about five times likelier to blame Mr. Obama for the country's economic ills, three times likelier to say Mr. Obama's policies will be harmful and twice as apt to see the country on the wrong track.

These aren't subtle shadings between tea party backers and the majority of people, who don't support the movement; they're Grand Canyon-size chasms.

Whole article

 

[Damocles]

LOL. If they were satisfied with things they wouldn't be up with protesting.

I can sum up the entire story in one sentence:

"Tea Party Activists are more likely to think the government is not being run well and would like to change things."

Well, DUH!

 

[Bfgrn]

LOL. If they were satisfied with things they wouldn't be up with protesting.

I can sum up the entire story in one sentence:

"Tea Party Activists are more likely to think the government is not being run well and would like to change things."

Well, DUH!

We all want change; but the object is change for the better, not for the worse. The most revealing statistic about tea partiers came out in an earlier NYT/CBS poll: The percentage holding a favorable opinion of former President George W. Bush is at 57 percent. It exactly matches the percentage in the general public that holds an unfavorable view of him.

So, when tea partiers say "I want my country back", what they're saying is: 'I want my authoritarian war criminal depot back'

 

[cawacko]

Zogby Poll out today says Obama has a 39% approval rating. Looks like tea party members are with the majority in not approving of Obama's job so far.

 

[Damocles]

Zogby Poll out today says Obama has a 39% approval rating. Looks like tea party members are with the majority in not approving of Obama's job so far.

Well, that and the "repeal" health care thing... (BTW, it's repeal AND replace).

Each time they come out with these it makes me chuckle a bit, because the stats actually do show they fall rather well into the "we the people" category even with the few outlier stats like "approve of GWB"...

GWB no longer holds the office, most Americans dislike the health care malformation (they may not agree on why they dislike it, but they dislike it) and would like to see it replaced with something better, and most people think Obama isn't doing that great of a job. Wherever AP is getting the 35% disapproval rating, they're being a bit disingenuous. When only 39% approve of the job he's doing then the reality is most people think he isn't doing that great of a job.

 

[Bonestorm]

Zogby Poll out today says Obama has a 39% approval rating. Looks like tea party members are with the majority in not approving of Obama's job so far.

Zogby Interactive polls are worthless.

 

[SmarterthanYou]

false argument. TEA party people are not the republican parties most conservative members, if they even are members.

 

[cawacko]

Zogby Interactive polls are worthless.

Ok. Why is that?

 

[Bfgrn]

Well, that and the "repeal" health care thing... (BTW, it's repeal AND replace).

Each time they come out with these it makes me chuckle a bit, because the stats actually do show they fall rather well into the "we the people" category even with the few outlier stats like "approve of GWB"...

GWB no longer holds the office, most Americans dislike the health care malformation (they may not agree on why they dislike it, but they dislike it) and would like to see it replaced with something better, and most people think Obama isn't doing that great of a job. Wherever AP is getting the 35% disapproval rating, they're being a bit disingenuous. When only 39% approve of the job he's doing then the reality is most people think he isn't doing that great of a job.

Another glaring statistic on tea partiers: 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. Fifty-nine percent of Tea Party supporters have a favorable impression of Glenn Beck.

So they are misinformed and completely swallow Republican propaganda and talking points. Thirty percent of Tea Party supporters believe Mr. Obama was born in another country, despite ample evidence to the contrary.

Seventy-seven percent describe Mr. Obama as "very liberal," compared to 31 percent of Americans overall. Fifty-six percent say the president's policies favor the poor, compared to 27 percent of Americans overall.

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.

While most Americans (58 percent) say the president understands their needs and problems, just 24 percent of Tea Party supporters agree. Just one in five say the president shares the values of most Americans.

So Damos stats actually do show they DON'T fall rather well into the "we the people" category even with the few outlier stats like "approve of GWB"...

What would you replace the 'Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act' with Damos? The plan that was passes has all the reform ideas Republicans supported for the last 30 years, including their BIG idea; the individual mandate.

 

[Crashk]

The tea party is a direct result of corporate propaganda and money. Teabaggers back the same people and corporate ideas that have been fucking them in the ass for 30 years. The problem is they are too stupid to realize it because they get their 'information' from corporate propaganda hate speech that claims to be 'news'.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

LOL. If they were satisfied with things they wouldn't be up with protesting.

I can sum up the entire story in one sentence:

"Tea Party Activists are more likely to think the government is not being run well and would like to change things."

Well, DUH!

Well the problems the majority of the nation has with tea partiers is A. They had their way for 8 years and ran the nation into a ditch and B. The politician they supported, Bush, was the most inept President in nearly 100 years.

To sum it up, the rest of the nation is appalled at the idea of changing things to anything tea baggers want.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

Zogby Poll out today says Obama has a 39% approval rating. Looks like tea party members are with the majority in not approving of Obama's job so far.

Dude, you do understand that Zogby polls are polls in which the respondents chose themselves as the sample, don't you?

 

[Mott the Hoople]

Ok. Why is that?

Because of their sampling methods. In Zogby interactive the statistical sample is choosing itself meaning that the sample is, by definition, not representative of a random sample and thus lacks scientific merit.

 

[SmarterthanYou]

crash and mott, two peas in a pod still adamantly holding on to the fantasy of TEA party corpocrats and establishment GOP. gotta admire the determination in looking stupid.

 

[cawacko]

Dude, you do understand that Zogby polls are polls in which the respondents chose themselves as the sample, don't you?

No, I don't follow polling groups.

 

[Crashk]

crash and mott, two peas in a pod still adamantly holding on to the fantasy of TEA party corpocrats and establishment GOP. gotta admire the determination in looking stupid.

"The scads of media coverage about the burgeoning "tea party" effort has focused heavily on the idea that those who identify themselves as part of the movement are political free agents -- dismissive of both parties and Washington in general.

New data out of Gallup suggests that premise isn't right, as nearly seven in 10 tea party supporters describe themselves as "conservative Republicans."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/republican-party/tea-party-as-the-republican-pa.html

How can you be expected to hold an intelligent conversation about politics when you don't even know what's happening in your own party?

 

[SmarterthanYou]

"The scads of media coverage about the burgeoning "tea party" effort has focused heavily on the idea that those who identify themselves as part of the movement are political free agents -- dismissive of both parties and Washington in general.

New data out of Gallup suggests that premise isn't right, as nearly seven in 10 tea party supporters describe themselves as "conservative Republicans."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/republican-party/tea-party-as-the-republican-pa.html

because most of them probably believe they are actually out to remake the republican party. I pity those fools.

How can you be expected to hold an intelligent conversation about politics when you don't even know what's happening in your own party?

I'd have to be a republican for you to believe you can't hold an intelligent conversation about politics with me. Since I'm a Libertarian, I have to wonder if you're capable of holding an intelligent conversation with ME about politics.

 

[Bfgrn]

crash and mott, two peas in a pod still adamantly holding on to the fantasy of TEA party corpocrats and establishment GOP. gotta admire the determination in looking stupid.

Really? What we found out this summer is many of the TEA partiers are on the public dole so they had all kinds of free time, so they went from state to state riding tour buses paid for by corporate lobbyists.

 

[SmarterthanYou]

Really? What we found out this summer is many of the TEA partiers are on the public dole so they had all kinds of free time, so they went from state to state riding tour buses paid for by corporate lobbyists.

thats not any different than the SEIU thugs doing the same thing. Of course there are thieving and conniving individuals who will want to hijack the wondrous TEA revolution.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

crash and mott, two peas in a pod still adamantly holding on to the fantasy of TEA party corpocrats and establishment GOP. gotta admire the determination in looking stupid.

You show me some evidence that the tea party is anything more then mostly a bunch of angry old white rednecks and I'll eat crow.

This "Simple solutions for simple minds" shit can't run a country of 300 million people. That's a fact ya'll need to get you're head around.