A Poll Arising Debate, Part 2

More on the reaction to that CBS News/NY Times profile poll on the Tea Party movement.  The pundit reaction at the Times is illuminating.  Alan Brinkley:

The most important clue to the views of the Tea Partiers is who they are: mostly white males, over 45, more wealthy and more conservative than the norm. This is a profile that matches other highly motivated protests over many decades — the supporters of Joseph McCarthy, for example, in the 1950s. Today, the target is not communism, which is no longer a major issue for the right (although “socialism” appears to have taken its place). But what seems to motivate them the most is a fear of a reduction in their own status — economically and socially.

Economically, they fear that government spending and high deficits will lead to higher taxes and to inflation, both of which would threaten their own livelihoods. It is telling that the Tea Partiers display a very high level of concern about deficit spending, but a significantly lower concern when they are asked if they would prefer higher taxes and lower deficits, or lower taxes and higher deficits. Most Tea Partiers choose the latter, which suggests that their concern is not the state of the economy as a whole, but their own economic conditions.

The Tea Party motto:  I got mine, screw the rest of you.  They're looking out for themselves, basically.  Mostly, they really, really don't want to see taxpayer dollars spent on the poor or minorities.  You can count on Amity Shlaes to whitewash the questions of race:

Generally the media these days depict Tea Partiers as bigots who look down on minorities as inferior. Yet 11 percent of Tea Party supporters said that what they liked best about the president was that he was intelligent, while only 6 percent of the general population said that intelligence was their favorite attribute of Mr. Obama. Asked what they liked least about Mr. Obama, and offered the option of answering “He’s Muslim,” only a tiny share of both groups, 1 percent, chose that description for their dislike. These responses undercut the argument that Tea Partyism is racism.  

And the response that "25 percent think that the administration favors blacks over whites — compared with 11 percent of the general public" does not undercut that argument.  Also, when "[t]hey are more likely than the general public, and Republicans, to say that too much has been made of the problems facing black people" then that whole "Tea Partyism is racism" argument seems to have merit.   Lorenzo Morris addresses that:

If there’s a bias, they would surely say it is not racial because most think “too much has been made” of black problems. It is rather American values which 3 out of 4 say President Obama does not share. In fact, for 9 of 10 Tea Party respondents disapprove of President Obama overall job performance.

Still, individual competence can’t be what angers them because two-thirds have a favorable opinion of Sarah Palin and yet 47 percent think she lacks “the ability to an effective president.” Spending is objectionable because they think it is misdirected on domestic programs — except when the spending is on programs they may need like Social Security and Medicare.

When asked what makes the largest percentage of them angry, however, it’s health care reform rather than taxes. It is not that the government cannot administer health care programs, it is just that they don’t want to pay the government to do it. Here, they seem to want to repeat the folly of those early Americans who thought there could be government with no taxes. A real source of anger may well be that reality imposes itself every April 15th.

Actually, I think the source of anger can be traced back to November 2008, when the horse these folks backed kind of lost.  Big time.  They're mad because they've been scammed by the Republicans, and they're projecting on Obama and the Dems.  Nobody likes to be made a fool of.  And a whole lot of the folks in the Tea Party simply aren't used to not being in charge of the country.  It's new, shocking, and downright scary to them.

Finding out America passed you by is not a fun time.  Probably explains why 24% of them believe violence against the government is justified (as opposed to 16% of the general public.)  Also, 94% of them think it's time for new people in Congress.  A plurality of them say the economy's fault belongs solely to Congress as a matter of fact, not Bush (5%), not Obama (10%), not Wall Street (15%)...but Congress (28%).  94% of them don't trust the government.

It gets worse.  Where the country favors creating jobs over reducing the deficit 50%-42%, three-quarters of these clowns say we should reduce the deficit (76%), while only 17% think creating jobs is more important.  I got mine, screw you, remember?

73% of them think government programs for the poor keep people poor.  The general public disagrees.  Two-thirds of them say global warming will never have an impact on humans, or doesn't exist.

And the best part:  63% say their primary news source is FOX.  The public?  Just 23%.

The Tea Party is an echo chamber with a short fuse and no sense of irony.