Bookraft

The NYTimes has a poll, done with CBS, of the Tea party. The poll and extensive interviews plus the story and follow up discussion shed enormous light on the nature of Tea Party supporters and their sometimes contradictory demands. Here is why NYTimes did the poll:

The Tea Party movement burst onto the scene a year ago in protest of the economic stimulus package, and its supporters have vowed to purge the Republican Party of officials they consider not sufficiently conservative and to block the Democratic agenda on the economy, the environment and health care. But the demographics and attitudes of those in the movement have been known largely anecdotally. The Times/CBS poll offers a detailed look at the profile and attitudes of those supporters.

Here are two viewpoints in that analysis that seem very compelling.

First, Steven Hayward state the case well that Tea Partyers are not what had been described in the conjecturing media:

"This populist movement is not your father’s culture war; in fact, 57 percent (question 67) favor gay marriage or civil unions, 65 percent favor access to abortion; an equal number (question 70) support some gun restrictions.
Surprisingly, the survey reveals Tea Party members to be slightly more economically secure than the general population. Combine those findings with the fact that Tea Partiers are a well-educated cohort, and the narrative that the Tea Partiers are a bunch of pitchfork populist rubes becomes harder to maintain"

The Tea Party movement is about economics not social politics. And the number one concern is the change in status of the US as it becomes an indebted nation and losing jobs and economic prowess to China, India, South East Asia and the rest of the World. But this same group, demanding cuts to the debt and budget fails to see entitlement programs which they value like Medicare and Social Security as part of the problem; but instead demand cuts to a great undefined pool of "government waste".

Allan Brinkley picks up this notion in his analysis:

"But what seems to motivate them the most is a fear of a reduction in their own status — economically and socially."

The rise of other developing countries in the world means more domestic jobs are likely to be outsourced overseas [Microsoft just contracted out all of its technical support services to India's Infosys]. As well the new drives towards Climate, Energy and Resource-usage Control under the banner of World Livability and Sustainability, this movement will attack North Americans great privilege of having 4-5% of the World's population yet continue to want to consume 20-30% of the World's Resources. Thus the Tea Party members see a loss in their own and their children's economic and social status as unwanted and being imposed by the current administration. After all, the great illusion that President George W. Bush fostered was that you didn't have to pay taxes for a major war and huge additional Medicare provisions - and in fact you could cut taxes, though it be centered on the wealthy.

Hence the Tea Party movement is the very substantial vestiges[about 20%] of the population that either deliberately or through self-indulgence, refuse to recognize the new realities. First, America has committed great self-inflicted economic and political wounds on itself for the past 10 years. Second, China and Southeast Asia have become major economic powers. These countries have done so in no small part by having populations willing to work very ably for a fraction of European and North American wages. Now these countries also have taken some short cuts such as exporting their pollution to neighbors, "borrowing/stealing for nill" technology and processes from the developed countries, and persistently under pricing their wares in the world[China specifically]. But hey Yankee traders did the same from 1850-1910 too.

So as long as "God Bless America" takes precedent over "America Wins with World Leading Work and Innovation" - some of the concerns and trepidations of Tea Party members will surely come to pass.