The NYT tea party profile: old white dudes with money who think poor people and black folks are getting over
… They’ve got enough time on their hands to attend rallies, like, constantly … and enough money to buy spiffy period costumes … they’re white. … really white (just 1 percent are Black, 3 percent Hispanic)… they’re male, over 45, angry, armed and super-conservative … they watch Fox News (and twice as many — 54% — think Beck and Hannity are news than the 25% who realize it’s entertainment) … they miss the bygone days of America (when people like them enjoyed the spoils of being society’s top dogs) and they miss Dubya … they’ve got degrees, yet they cannot spell … (oh, and a quarter of them think it’s justified for citizens to take up arms against the government. Great!)
Meet the tea parties!
According to a new NYT/CBS News poll (full results here):
Their responses are like the general public’s in many ways. Most describe the amount they paid in taxes this year as “fair.” Most send their children to public schools. A plurality do not think Sarah Palin is qualified to be president, and, despite their push for smaller government, they think that Social Security and Medicare are worth the cost to taxpayers. They actually are just as likely as Americans as a whole to have returned their census forms, though some conservative leaders have urged a boycott.
Tea Party supporters’ fierce animosity toward Washington, and the president in particular, is rooted in deep pessimism about the direction of the country and the conviction that the policies of the Obama administration are disproportionately directed at helping the poor rather than the middle class or the rich.
The overwhelming majority of supporters say Mr. Obama does not share the values most Americans live by and that he does not understand the problems of people like themselves. More than half say the policies of the administration favor the poor, and 25 percent think that the administration favors blacks over whites — compared with 11 percent of the general public.
They are more likely than the general public, and Republicans, to say that too much has been made of the problems facing black people.
Asked what they are angry about, Tea Party supporters offered three main concerns: the recent health care overhaul, government spending and a feeling that their opinions are not represented in Washington.
The poll also found that despite what the tea party spokespeople keep insisting about being “non partisan” and being just as critical of George W. Bush, who initiated TARP and bailed out the banks, 57 percent of tea party members continue to support former President Bush. And why not? They’re the people who got his tax cuts (or at least they believe they are, since the top 1 percent income earners are the ones pulling their strings, not the ones tying teabags to their hats.) The poll found that a majority of tea party people describe their own financial situation as “good” or “very good.” They blame Congress, not the Bush administration and not Wall Street, for the recession, and say they don’t want a third party, and almost always vote Republican.
And there’s this: they want the poor people to go away so they can have more … more Social Security and Medicare, that is …
And nearly three-quarters of those who favor smaller government said they would prefer it even if it meant spending on domestic programs would be cut.
But in follow-up interviews, Tea Party supporters said they did not want to cut Medicare or Social Security — the biggest domestic programs, suggesting instead a focus on “waste.”
Some defended being on Social Security while fighting big government by saying that since they had paid into the system, they deserved the benefits.
Others could not explain the contradiction.
“That’s a conundrum, isn’t it?” asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin, Calif. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.” She added, “I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I’ve changed my mind.”
Okay, I’m getting why they can’t spell.
The Times also offers some responses to the poll, and opportunities to describe who these people are. The best description? They’re the “party of me…”
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.
… The real issue, I believe, is a sense among white males that they are somehow being displaced, that the country is no longer “theirs,” that minorities and immigrants are becoming more and more powerful within society. And, of course, they are right about that. They just fear it more than many other Americans.
Well there you go.
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[...] since we now have confirmation that the tea parties are not some new constituency Republicans can add to their ranks, but rather [...]
[...] But Williams was just getting started. On his blog on Wednesday, he took his “non-racist” commentary to the next level, writing his version of an “open letter” to Abe Lincoln … from the “colored people…” in which he accuses black people, or sorry “coloreds,” of not wanting to work, of “striving for welfare,” and wanting to buy “flat screen TVs” with white people’s stolen money. Seriously. It’s an apparent attempt at satire, I suppose, but which aligns perfectly with the views of the tea party movement, which is by and large a mash-up of Libertarians who want to get rid of Social Security, disappointed Palin cultists and old geezer racists who believe Obama only got himself elected so he can steal all the white people’s money and hand it out in the hood. [...]
[...] Older, well off white guys who think poor people and illegal immigrants are trying to use the recession as an excuse to steal [...]
[...] How poor people and black people (but not “you people” on stage here with us as “UniTea” … no, we like YOU …) are conspiring with Barack Obama to steal our stuff. [...]
I’m older and white, but with no money to speak of. It seems you need all three to be a perfect Tea Party person. Maybe even thinking the famous economic idiot, Ayn Rand, was a goddess also helps.
It seems the US Constitution is wonderful unless they disagree with certain parts or want to get rid of it altogether and start another government run by idiots instead of the crooks which we have now.
Maybe the famous ne’er do well Samuel Adams is back with us again. He instigated the first tea party; he had nothing else to do as he squandered his inheritance, bankrupted a thriving brewing business and, I suppose, found work was beneath his “genius”.
It could be possible that Sarah Palin is Sam Adams reincarnated; she is, as Rush Limbaugh so beautifully stated, “a fox”; much prettier than Adams. She is a shining example of the American Spirit. Anyone can run for President without regard to race, creed or ability.
[...] but to help dis-empower themselves. The tea bagger conservatives are a fairly good example – The NYT tea party profile: old white dudes with money who think poor people and black folks are gett…. They want and think they deserve their Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment benefits, workman’s [...]