Tea Party supporters are wealthier and more well-educated than the general public, and are no more or less afraid of falling into a lower socioeconomic class, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.That led me to wonder, how could an educated group of people insist that Obama is Muslim? Why do so many appear to be birthers? What's with all the racist signs and the stupid speech? The polling results just don't make any sense. The data doesn't match what we see on TV.
The 18 percent of Americans who identify themselves as Tea Party supporters tend to be Republican, white, male, married and older than 45.
They hold more conservative views on a range of issues than Republicans generally. They are also more likely to describe themselves as “very conservative” and President Obama as “very liberal.” NYT
And while most Republicans say they are “dissatisfied” with Washington, Tea Party supporters are more likely to classify themselves as “angry.”
People say that educated people can be racist as well, but the tea partiers that I've seen don't appear to be educated. Then I got to thinking that perhaps there are two tea party elements, the wealthy and educated, legitimately concerned about the nation's finances, and the tools--the tea party activists out there with their misspelled signs and signs of Obama with a mustache, who are either being exploited by the wealthy and educated tea partiers, or jumping on the bandwagon.
