Analysis of a CBS News Poll of “Tea Party Supporters”
Several things in this CBS write-up got me thinking, so I just want to offer my view on the whole thing.
… surveyed 1,580 adults, including 881 self-identified Tea Party supporters …
… Eighteen percent of Americans identify as Tea Party supporters. …
At first glance, those numbers do not appear to crunch; however, here is an explanation from the footer of the article:
An oversample of people who describe themselves as supporters of the Tea Party movement were interviewed, for a total of 881 interviews. The results were then weighted in proportion to the adult population.
So there you go.
Just one percent [of them are] black.
Speaking of crunching numbers, I want to take a minute to see what we’re talking about.
If, indeed, 18% of Americans are Tea Party supporters (hereinafter referred to as TPers), then going on a rough estimate of 300 million for the U.S. population, that means 54 million Americans are TPers. Wow, nice!
Next, we’re talking about the ethnicity of one percent. One percent of 54 million is 540,000. Again, wow! That’s a good number of blacks!
So my point here is that when I look at the raw numbers rather than the percentages, for me, the intended effect of the original language is reversed.
But I’m not done here. I also want to point out the fact that they are bringing race into this at all. Sure, it’s just facts, but they chose to present this fact which really doesn’t/shouldn’t matter, thus getting people to think things like “TPers are racists” and such nonsense.
Onward.
They are better educated than most Americans: 37 percent are college graduates, compared to 25 percent of Americans overall.
This is good news! It means that any liberal who says things like “Since when does a poor education mean you know how to do things better than the government?” now automatically looks uninformed.
Also, I would be interested in seeing this education-level stat for Obama supporters.
They are more likely than American adults overall to attend religious services weekly (38 percent do so) …
In other words, we are more likely to have a moral compass than the general population.
More than half — 58 percent — keep a gun in the household.
T’ain’t nothin’ wrong with exercising our rights.
Fifty-three percent of Tea Party supporters describe themselves as “angry” about the way things are going in Washington, compared to 19 percent of Americans overall who say they are angry.
I’m surprised the 53% number isn’t higher — isn’t that the reason we’re all organizing?
Asked what they are most angry about, the top four answers among Tea Party supporters who identify as angry were the health care reform bill (16 percent), the government not representing the people (14 percent), government spending (11 percent) and unemployment and the economy (8 percent).
Methinks the “government not representing the people” option is the real reason for the movement, and it seems to encompass the other three options.
More than nine in ten (92 percent) say America is on the wrong track, while just six percent say the country is headed in the right direction. Fifty-nine percent of Americans overall say the country is on the wrong track.
Again, I thought “America is on the wrong track” was the reason for our organizing. Who are those other 6 percent, and why do they identify themselves as TPers?
The third stat, when compared with the 18% of Americans that call themselves TPers, tells me that we in the movement have a lot of work to do! There are people out there that agree with us that we have not brought into the fold, and we need to figure out why. Is it for a lack of effort on our part? on their part? Is there something about these organizations that they don’t like or agree with? If so, what? These are all good questions.
Asked to volunteer what they don’t like about Mr. Obama, the top answer, offered by 19 percent of Tea Party supporters, was that they just don’t like him.
Embarrassing FAIL. We, as a whole, should be better educated on the facts than that.
Fifty-six percent say the president’s policies favor the poor, compared to 27 percent of Americans overall.
Hmm. On the surface, yes, I might agree; however, “trickle-down economics”, which the President has ridiculed, is quite a fact, and thus, I would argue that his policies really don’t favor the poor at all (much less everyone else).
Only one percent of Tea Party supporters approve of the job Congress is doing, compared to 17 percent of Americans overall.
Both numbers are quite low, but again, who are that one percent, and why do they call themselves TPers?
Sixty-three percent say they get the majority of their political and current events news on television from the Fox News Channel, compared to 23 percent of Americans overall.
I see what you did there, CBS, but I’m not falling for it. Really, look at that number; a whole 37% of them (that’s about 20 million people) DON’T get the majority of their news from Fox, yet they call themselves TPers just the same. That tells me that a majority of TPers prefer Fox — not necessarily that TPers are TPers because they get their information from Fox.
Forty-seven percent say television is their main source of Tea Party information, the top source; another 24 percent say they get Tea Party information from the internet.
I can understand that the skewing-older of the movement would result in more traditional media consumption, but I still wish the TV number was lower and the Internet number was higher.
But Americans overall disagree: Just 25 percent say the Tea Party movement reflects their beliefs, while 36 percent say it does not.
And the other 39% don’t know, or what? If not knowing is the case, then I would disagree with the wording above (that “Americans overall disagree”).
Asked what socialism means, roughly half of Tea Party supporters volunteered government ownership or control, far more than any other answer.
Yay, they got it right!
Thirty percent of Tea Party supporters believe Mr. Obama was born in another country, despite ample evidence to the contrary.
Since ample means “more than enough”, that sounds like bias to me.
Just ten percent say the stimulus package had a positive effect on the economy (compared to 32 percent of Americans overall), while 36 percent say it actually made things worse.
I can see how both could be true.
And while the vast majority opposes the health care reform bill, 62 percent say programs like Social Security and Medicare are worth the costs to taxpayers. (The figure is even higher among Americans overall, at 76 percent.)
Good catch, CBS. This number is too high.
Tea Party supporters are less likely than Americans overall to believe whites have more opportunities to get ahead than blacks. …
A side effect of our not being racist (not counting any radicals who may be in the movement, of course).
Lastly, you might find interesting these further details comparing general TP “supporters” to “activists” (those who donate and/or attend events, as opposed to just mentally supporting the ideas of the movement, I guess).
