A New York Times piece yesterday, based on research for a new book on religion and politics in America, American Grace, reveals a few things about the Tea Party movement that many people, myself included, have long known. Let the myth-busting begin!
Myth #1: The Tea Partiers are independent and non-partisan:
Early on, Tea Partiers were often described as nonpartisan political neophytes. Actually, the Tea Party’s supporters today were highly partisan Republicans long before the Tea Party was born, and were more likely than others to have contacted government officials. In fact, past Republican affiliation is the single strongest predictor of Tea Party support today.Myth #2: The Tea Party was partly a reaction to the Great Recession:
...the Tea Party is not a creature of the Great Recession. Many Americans have suffered in the last four years, but they are no more likely than anyone else to support the Tea Party.Myth #3: The Tea Party was mainly a reaction to the growth in government in recent years:
...concern over big government is hardly the only or even the most important predictor of Tea Party support among voters.Myth #4: The Tea Partiers are not motivated by racism or xenophobia:
They are overwhelmingly white, but even compared to other white Republicans, they had a low regard for immigrants and blacks long before Barack Obama was president, and they still do.Myth #5: The Tea Party is not a theocratic or overly religious movement at all:
More important, they were disproportionately social conservatives in 2006 — opposing abortion, for example — and still are today. Next to being a Republican, the strongest predictor of being a Tea Party supporter today was a desire, back in 2006, to see religion play a prominent role in politics. And Tea Partiers continue to hold these views: they seek “deeply religious” elected officials, approve of religious leaders’ engaging in politics and want religion brought into political debates. The Tea Party’s generals may say their overriding concern is a smaller government, but not their rank and file, who are more concerned about putting God in government.Myth #6: The Tea Party represents the political values of a majority of Americans:
Polls show that disapproval of the Tea Party is climbing. In April 2010, a New York Times/CBS News survey found that 18 percent of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of it, 21 percent had a favorable opinion and 46 percent had not heard enough. Now, 14 months later, Tea Party supporters have slipped to 20 percent, while their opponents have more than doubled, to 40 percent.The only surprise here for me was the new polling showing the Tea Party becoming extremely unpopular. That's great news for the future. Unfortunately, in general, Americans are still moving to the Right, and at this time in our history, when we so need Keynesian investment, that may have very destructive consequences.
Of course, politicians of all stripes are not faring well among the public these days. But in data we have recently collected, the Tea Party ranks lower than any of the 23 other groups we asked about — lower than both Republicans and Democrats. It is even less popular than much maligned groups like “atheists” and “Muslims.” Interestingly, one group that approaches it in unpopularity is the Christian Right.
JMJ
11 Blistering Critiques:
I suspect that the left is doing these "studies" of the TEA party because they fear a destruction of the status quo domintation that the two (real) parties currently hold on our electoral process. However the fact remains that confidence in the current system is in the gutter. MOST Americans, regardless of which DC team you support are not happy with either party. The TEA's are just the only opposition game in town that has any clout. When was the last time you heard the Green Party mentioned? The reason lefties such as JMJ hate the TEA's is because the movement was born from the team formerly flying the red flag. If a similar movement of anti status quo governmental policy people were able to rise from the left with as much success I suspect Jersey would be posting studies showing how the represent all Americans. I know many who vote Republican due entirely to the "lesser of two evils" mentality that support the rise of a party that is more aligned with a libertarian approach and wish the TEA's would stay away from social issues. You would think that like minded Americans could agree on some simple truths. Like the fact that almost everything the government undertakes costs more than it should and produces less desirable effects than it could. Or the fact that when people are in charge of spending other peoples money they are less likely to exercise the same care as they would spending their own. The two party system is completely responsible for the dire financial situation we experiencing. The mismanagement of the countries finances can be equally blamed on R's and D's since the end of WWII.
Take the the effect the baby boomers are having on SS and Medicare for instance. Is there a single politician from 1960 on that could not have seen it coming? Yet it was continually passed on to the next congress or President to deal with. The housing bubble a shock? Nope. Plenty of data was available was available. It was ignored. You don't have to look far to see how government employees in DC have screwed it's customers and now we are being told we will all have to share in the sacrifice. Credit default swaps and derivative trading a surprise? Why the hell do we have an SEC then? Oil well blowouts in the gulf due to faulty equipment or not following procedure? Why do we have a MMS? Did you miss the stories about the high level MMS officials surfing porn instead of working? The feds have failed the public at many many levels and were not supposed to be angry?
You may hate the TEA's but someone has to do something other than bitch and they are doing something. The left needs to spawn their own version so that the sold out Democrats can feel the same heat the sold out Republicans are feeling.
Manapp, there was no "study." What happened was these two professors were writing a book, back in 2006, about the intersection of religion and politics in America, and they discovered an algorithm among set answers from interviewees. So they went back and asked the same questions again, and discovered a pattern. One that was a bit of a surprise, by the way. I was actually a little surprised by some of the findings (though in general I felt affirmed of my opinion).
I don't "hate" anybody. The trouble is that the Tea Party does. And worse yet, they hate the President of the United States of America. That's a pretty big problem.
JMJ
"Take the the effect the baby boomers are having on SS and Medicare for instance. Is there a single politician from 1960 on that could not have seen it coming?"
And it will pass. There are less of us than them. Eventually, they will pass. That's life, Manapp.
"Yet it was continually passed on to the next congress or President to deal with."
Yes. It's a program.
"The housing bubble a shock?"
No. But not because the gov't did too much. Just the opposite. We allowed mortgages to be sold on the "open" stock market.
Credit default swaps and derivative trading a surprise?
Well, thank the GOP. Oh, and is the friggin' Tea Party doing anything about that? No. The fucks.
"Why the hell do we have an SEC then?"
Good question.
"Oil well blowouts in the gulf due to faulty equipment or not following procedure? Why do we have a MMS? Did you miss the stories about the high level MMS officials surfing porn instead of working? The feds have failed the public at many many levels and were not supposed to be angry?"
In everything you just complained about there, the GOP has fought tooth and nail to disable regulation. Are you for real?
Manapp! Listen to yourself! You're starting to sound like me - but for that you're looking at the wrong culprits!
JMJ
"I don't "hate" anybody. The trouble is that the Tea Party does. And worse yet, they hate the President of the United States of America. That's a pretty big problem."
Did you have a similar problem when the leftists hated Bush? Or is hating a President OK with you if there is an (r) after his name?
Truth be told, it's not a problem that someone hates a President. It shows that dissent is strong, a healthy thing in a free society.
A lot better than the situation in socialist North Korea. The president there is well loved by everyone. Of course he is. It's the law.
----------
Manapp said: "You may hate the TEA's but someone has to do something other than bitch and they are doing something."
You are right. And they are proposing good solutions to real problems. Like their pushing to reduce the national debt, while the President pushes to triple it.
" When was the last time you heard the Green Party mentioned?"
The last time they were mentioned was when they ran a sort of neo-Nazi for President in 2008. A woman who accepts campaign funds from terrorists and blames "the Jews" for her political problems.
As for gulf oil, remember, the Dems block domestic oil production all the time. This forces us to look in places like the ocean floor, or get imported oil.
What a bunch of shit.
Two years afo you yourself said they were nothing, would amount to nothing, were not a grass roots movement and bla bla bla.
I know more about the Tea Party than you ever will for the simple fact that the majority of them are no different than the average American whos tired of both parties pissing awway our money and rights.
Thats all they are, thats all they were.
Now, this group of Americans you said would amount to nothing is not a product of the Koch bros and has in fact become a formidable force that none of you moonbats can reconcile except to lie and accuse the lot for what one or two stupid individuals do.
Just because I put a pic of a moonbat holding a "Bush is Hitler" sign doesnt represent the majority of moonbats...does it asshole ?
Lil ole tea party has handed your asses to you.
And spare me this crap that they caused the downgrade.
What a bunch of unadulterated fucking bullshit !!
More dems voted in line with that passage than the 50+ tea partiers !!
Hows that for clearing up a myth ?
Its all falling apart, and so is the left.
Get the popcorn
When Maxin "Marxist" Waters says shes upset with him its just not good for you guys..
After Barry loses the election lets all write our congress and ask them to mark the occasion with a yearly national holiday kinda like Thanksgiving where we splurge in recognition of worldly goods, capitalistic wealth and all its trimmings.Close all the public schools, shut down the Fed. Fire up the Hummer and bust out all the crap you’re not supposed to eat, Pinatas that look like Michelles ass with a face like Mohammed full of Happy Meals and Twinkies. The woeds “hope and change” will not be spoken or or you have to take a picture naked standing next to a pin up of Helen Thomas. Explain to our kids,much in the spirit of Independence day, that these things were almost brought to extinction by one of the countries worst attacks, put it in their history books….
Call it “Independents Day”
Even though it speaks against them the left will partake and celebrate anyways like they do Christmas for the free gifts.
The official garb for the holiday will be a bible, a gun, a suicide vest/ski mask (thanks to Napolitano and HS)a nine iron and an American flag pin.
What a joke.
Theres nothing of any substance to back up any of your busted myths.
NYTS ?
Let me ask you something genius.
If the Tea Party is so unfavorable as you claim, insignificant...then why did they take the house ?
And why are they so insignificant yet they're significant enough to of caused our downgrade ?
Its that same fucking stuipid logic you morons carry that says Bush was a flaming idiot yet he was smart enough to pull off 911, start a fake war with intel from 21 allies, create a total corporate military structure.
The Tea Party is either an insignificant harmless piss ant with no teeth or the greatest threat this country has seen.
Racism ?
What proof ?
And please, dont show me the 4 or 5 exceptions to the rule.
Racist long before Barry ?
They werent conceived til he started pissing away trillions.
Christian zealots trying to put God in government ?
Because their reps are Christian ?
Thats all you got ?
"Early on, Tea Partiers were often described as nonpartisan political neophytes. Actually, the Tea Party’s supporters today were highly partisan Republicans long before the Tea Party was born,"
Funny, thats exactly who they did not vote for.
Very few are old timers old schoolers.
Government and its reach has grown expodentisaly in leaps and bounds over the decades. Its reached percentages that are unsustainable.
Wall st,. Didnt run us broke.
Government did.
Those mortgages the banks bought ?
Where the fuck do you think they all came from ?
The CRA, CARTER, CLINTON, FRANK, DODD, FANNY, FREDDIE AND THE 111TH CONGRESS BUDDY !
ALL YOU GOT IS THE NYTs ?
Are you serious ?
why not just the Huffy post ?
MSNBC ?
LA Times ?
Fuck it ! Have Krugman sign off on it !
Manapp99 is right in his first sentence.
You cant find any non partisan entity to back this shit.
I got news for you.
These polls reflect the way all of America feels about all parties only "AFTER" we saw this debt ceiling bullsht almost shut down the fed.
S&P reacted the way it did and issued the downgrade because "NO ONE COULD GET THEIR SHIT TOGETHER AND LEGISLATE WITHOUT BEING A BUNCH OF SIBLING RIVALS IN JAMMIES !"
Everyone sucks in the polls right now !
Barry(worst ever), congress, tea party...
all time lows all around right now buddy !
Context man....context
The Tea Party is becoming less and less popular, guys. They had a surge after Obama was elected, but that surge is lessening now.
John Huntsman (one of the few close-to-sane people left in the GOP) said this:
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-08-21/politics/huntsman.gop_1_jon-huntsman-bachmann-mitt-romney?_s=PM:POLITICS
""You know, if we were to talk about his inconsistencies and his ... changes on various issues, we'd be here all afternoon," Huntsman said of Romney."
"In particular, Huntsman pounced on comments by Perry last week -- his first as an announced candidate -- that questioned the validity of evolution theory and climate-change science.
"The minute that the Republican Party becomes the anti-science party, we have a huge problem," Huntsman said. "We lose a whole lot of people who would otherwise allow us to win the election in 2012.""
"Asked about Perry's remark that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke would come close to committing treason if he agreed to "printing more money to play politics at this particular time," Huntsman said: "I'm not sure that the average voter out there is going to hear that treasonous remark and say that sounds like a presidential candidate, that sounds like someone who is serious on the issues."
There is a broader point, he noted.
"We've found ourselves at the extreme ends of the political spectrum and people are crying out for us to get back to some level of sensibility," Huntsman said, later adding: "I think when you find yourself at an extreme end of the Republican Party, you make yourself unelectable.""
The Tea Party movement was great for the GOP in 2010. It may be a major liability come 2012.
JMJ
No one cares about huntsman anymore.
Also, what you fail to understand is that the Tea Partys original concept was not to become a third party as much as it was to give the gop a wake up call to its original values of limited government, less taxes and regulation.
Obama and his dismal failures(s) sure as hell are not gaining any popularity.
Its not the dems that took the numbers at the house.
So far, looking back, all your predictions to the gop/tea party have been wrong.
Pull your partisan ass outta yer head.
The only liability we'll be looking at is an economy this shithead destroyed for decades to come.
This colossal friggin mess of unsurpassed proportions will have no choice but to hit us in the face every day for generations to come.He literally took this economy past the point of no return.
Unless we suffer a huge population depletion and increase annual GDP trifold for 50 years we'll never get out of this shit pit
I find this stuff entertaining. I call them "lies liberals tell themselves to explain why their crappy little world is crumbling."
Oh Mickey you are still so refreshing.
Poor Jersey still playing that old and tired race card.
"lies liberals tell themselves to explain why their crappy little world is crumbling"
Perfect SF
Mann-what up?
Post a Comment