Chomsky is wrong about the tea baggers and this new NYT poll shows it.

[cali]

Poll Finds Tea Party Anger Rooted in Issues of Class
By KATE ZERNIKE and MEGAN THEE-BRENAN
Published: April 14, 2010

Tea party supporters are wealthier and more well-educated than the general public, tend to be Republican, white, male, and married, and their strong opposition to the Obama administration is more rooted in political ideology than anxiety about their personal economic situation, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

The 18 percent of Americans who identify themselves as Tea Party supporters look like Republicans in many ways, but they hold more conservative views on a range of issues and tend to be older than Republicans generally. They are also more likely than Republicans as a whole to describe themselves as “very conservative” and President Obama as “very liberal.”

And while most Republicans say they are “dissatisfied” with Washington, Tea Party supporters are more likely to classify themselves as “angry.”

Speculation and anecdotal evidence have often taken the place of concrete data about who supports the Tea Party movement, and the poll offers some surprising findings.

In some ways, Tea Party supporters look like the general public. For instance, despite their allusions to Revolutionary War-era tax protesters, most describe the amount they paid in taxes this year as “fair.” Most send their children to public schools, do not think Sarah Palin is qualified to be president, and, despite their push for smaller government, think that Social Security and Medicare are worth the cost. They are actually more likely than the general public to have returned their census forms, despite some conservative leaders urging a boycott.

Their 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 Tea Party 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, compared with 11 percent of the general public, think that the administration favors blacks over whites. They are more likely than the general public, and Republicans, to say that too much has been made of the problems facing black people.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/politics/15poll.html

[Randypiper]

1. Bull

Tea baggers are hoopleheads

[maxsolomon]

2. in the 19th century, they'd be the "Know-Nothings"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing

rural populism - it spans centuries and the globe.

right when Ceacescu (sp?) was about to fall, he brought in miners from the countryside to bust the heads of pro-democracy demonstrators. interchangeable with the Tea Party.

except the miners were hale & hearty, & Tea Partiers are just old.

[rpannier]

The 19th Century 'Know-Nothings" is a spot on

They hate anyone they view as outsiders and alien to American culture (at least their interpretation)

[Bobbieo]

3. 'more well educated'?That is very debatable!!!!

[maxsolomon]

4. I assume you're responding to the OP

but i could believe that they DO have college degrees - which can vary widely in how much general knowledge you'd get - compare a PolySci degree to an Ag degree.

my stepson has a BioE degree - smart as hell, but knows shit about politics or history.

[Canuckistanian]

5. But they're STILL only 18%

That's even lower than the Bush "backwash" demographic.

And although they may be more educated, they sure ain't more informed about things like facts, current events, geography, history, science, genetics, public health, language, civic law, psychology, physics, finance, diplomacy or even simple logic.

Did I leave anything out?

[Gargoyle22]

6. Remember the non-existent PUMAs? Same thing. Media creation.