Another MSM/Dem myth busted

Both The Hill and Gallup report this morning some interesting demographics on the Tea Party movement that are at odds with how Democrats and their allies in the MSM have portrayed them. First, from The Hill (via Memeorandum):

Four in 10 Tea Party members are either Democrats or Independents, according to a new national survey.

The findings provide one of the most detailed portraits to date of the grassroots movement that started last year.

The national breakdown of the Tea Party composition is 57 percent Republican, 28 percent Independent and 13 percent Democratic, according to three national polls by the Winston Group, a Republican-leaning firm that conducted the surveys on behalf of an education advocacy group. Two-thirds of the group call themselves conservative, 26 are moderate and 8 percent say they are liberal.

The Winston Group conducted three national telephone surveys of 1,000 registered voters between December and February. Of those polled, 17 percent – more than 500 people — said they were β€œpart of the Tea Party movement.”

β€œIt’s a good sample size,” said David Winston, the polling firm’s director. β€œIt will certainly give us an initial base to follow where these folks are.”

The group is united around two issues – the economy/jobs and reducing the deficit. They believe that cutting spending is the key to job creation and favor tax cuts as the best way to stimulate the economy. That said 61 percent of Tea Party members believe infrastructure spending creates jobs. Moreover, given the choice Tea Party members favor 63-32 reducing unemployment to 5 percent over balancing the budget.

And from Gallup:

Tea Partiers Are Fairly Mainstream in Their Demographics
Skew right politically, but have typical profile by age, education, and employment

PRINCETON, NJ — Tea Party supporters skew right politically; but demographically, they are generally representative of the public at large. That’s the finding of a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted March 26-28, in which 28% of U.S. adults call themselves supporters of the Tea Party movement.

[…]

Tea Party supporters are decidedly Republican and conservative in their leanings. Also, compared with average Americans, supporters are slightly more likely to be male and less likely to be lower-income.

The breakdown is as follows:

49% Republican
43% Independent
8% Democrat

70% Conservative
22% Moderate
8% Liberal

Love the “decidedly Republican” description even though nearly the same number of those polled described themselves as “Independent” as they did “Republican” but whatever. I suspect the numbers are somewhere in the middle of what Gallup reported and the Winston Group reported. The Tea Party movement is a diverse group of people who don’t all fit in one neat little box and, contra to the President’s absurd and baseless claim, the “core” of the movement has nothing to do with “birtherism” but instead concern about this nation’s fiscal future and the increasing role government has in the lives of the American people. How could the “core” of the movement have anything to do with birtherism since the movement actually started in mid 2008 in response to government bailouts?? 8-|

JammieWearingFool, predicting that the Dems will be on suicide watch this morning after reading the “first wave” of news on the demographics of Tea Partiers, writes:

It’s interesting to note that job creation and deficit reduction are the two primary issues motivating those polled [in the Winston Group polls]. Democrats used to pay lip service to the deficit when it suited them and Obama has pretended to care about creating jobs while overseeing the loss of millions of them. The media mantra that it was all about taxes doesn’t seem to wash.

It sure doesn’t seem like the pathetic attempts at portraying tea partiers as a bunch of racist, violent extremists is bearing much fruit.

Nope, it doesn’t, but in answer to Noel Sheppard’s question wondering how the MSM will react to these findings, don’t look for them nor Democrats to change their tunes on their (coordinated?) attempts at smearing those who think this administration is taking this country in a dangerously wrong direction. The ends justifies the means to this agenda-driven crowd, even if it means violating their 2001-2008 “Dissent is patriotic” motto over and over again.

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