For upwards of 12 months now members of the so-called Tea Party protest movement have been stereotyped, derogated and often dismissed by some politicians and media outlets.
They’ve been portrayed variously as angry fringe elements, often inarticulate, potentially violent and merely Republicans in sheep’s clothing or disgruntled pockets of conservatives blindly lashing out at a left-handed President Obama and the same side of his Democratic Party finally getting its chance to drive home a liberal agenda after eight years of Republican rule and six under a centrist Bill Clinton.
Alas for stereotypes, they’re convenient, often catchy. But not necessarily true.
Now, comes a pair of polls, including Gallup, that paint a revealing detailed portrait of Tea Party supporters in most ways as pretty average Americans.
A Sunday poll — actually three national phone surveys of 1,000 registered voters — found that 17% of all polled, or more than 500, called themselves “part of the Tea Party movement.”
Further, from FoxNews
Tea Partiers have been dismissed as a fringe, but two new polls suggest the conservative movement might be going mainstream.
A Rasmussen poll released Monday found more Americans identify with the Tea Party groups than with President Obama.
According to the survey, 48 percent of voters said the average Tea Party activist is more aligned with their views on major issues than the president. Forty-four percent said Obama’s views are closer to theirs.
That came on top of a USA Today/Gallup poll that found more than a quarter of Americans affiliate themselves with the Tea Party movement.
The poll of 1,033 adults, conducted March 26-28, found 28 percent of people call themselves Tea Party supporters, while 26 percent call themselves opponents.
The survey also found that Tea Party supporters are not disproportionately dominated by any one demographic group. The characteristics of Tea Party supporters — in age, education, income and race — roughly follow the characteristics of the nation as a whole.
So. You and your neighbors think TEA Party members and advocates are The Fringe?
You couldn’t be more wrong.
TEA Partiers are MAINSTREAM AMERICANS.
BZ
The more people try to knock down the Tea party I think just emboldens members to try harder, so bring it on!
You betch, they lie!
SAY IT AIN’T SO…THE MEDIA LIES? 🙂
(seen my blog lately?!!)
Hey, BZ, I have to say that I haven’t read the LA TIMES in years (except my neighbors give me the crossword puzzles every Sunday!) but everybody’s telling me they’re starting to actually do fair reporting!
I know at LEAST 30 people personally who called them about 7 years ago and complained and stopped their subscription, …it took a while, but something’s happened.
So, you ask yourself…in reporting fairly, is this just to get subscribers, or are they starting to get more open minded themselves? naaaa 🙂
Now the MSM and others are painting the Tea Parties as racists… EVEN THOUGH THERE IS NO PROOF… Alinsky at work… keep lying and sooner or later SOMEBODY will believe it.
This post is featured here: The Rowlett TEA Party: U.S. TEA Party News
And of course it’s linked back with proper accreditation!
Beth: you are correct!
Mal: Given!
Z: aw, that breaks my heart to read of the LA Times troubles — which means that, as a source, is even more significant as they are so “in the tank” for the Left.
NFO: there is NO proof — Breitbart has raised his reward to $100K for anyone who can produce clear evidence that black politicians were called “nigger” during their walk in DC. NO PROOF.
TF: thank you most kindly sir!
BZ
It looks like even CNN is starting to come around..
The Communist News Network sent an “Embed” journalist to cover the tea party express, she had nothing but positives for the Tea party…SHOCKING…
They have been denigrating the tea party for a year, and finally decide to check it out first hand and find it’s a bunch of concerned well educated, political savvy AMERICANS….I expect that journalist to fired any day now.
I agree that the Tea Partiers are MAINSTREAM AMERICANS.
But the liberal media cannot allow for that fact to stand, can they?
If the media were to admit the fact, then they’d also have to admit that all is not hunky-dory under the BHO regime.
In my view, the lamestream media exist as the mouthpieces of the BHO administration.
Welcome to Orwell’s World.
No proof won’t matter to the self appointed elitist. They won’t be distracted by the truth. Heads may roll because the agent provocateurs didn’t perform properly.
And what is even more fun is that its more than just taxpayers!
Now when they start to propose a VAT, one of the most regressive taxes you can get, then those who don’t pay income tax will start to realize they are in full BOGU mode, too. It appears we are about to have yet another truly American social movement… about taxes. It is what the country was founded on, after all, and it does tend to get people moving around when they realize that they are the mark.
The con-man is government.