WHO are the tea baggers??

We love the Tea Party movement here at the Snake Pit and it is lame that neither cobra or I have shared our views on such a topic.  We differ, however, in how we see the Tea Baggers (as we love to call them).  Cobra is much more interested in explaining them, while I am much more interested in bashing them (like a good liberal communist).  As the movement began, however, Cobra and I got into heated discussions over who these people were.  Cobra did not believe my assertion that they were overwhelmingly white and NOT suffering from dire economic conditions.  Cobra's main argument was that they were reacting emotionally to the recession.  I agreed with the emotional part though - albeit after some long arguments with Cobra (who fights just as hard as me to defend his opinions, hehe).  ANYHOW, today I sent him a poll that FINALLY gets at the demographics of the tea baggers.  They were EXACTLY what I thought: mostly middle aged/old, educated, EMPLOYED, white men.  After all, as I had pointed to Cobra, you can't possibly be unemployed or in dire economic situation if you have TIME AND MONEY to be traveling the country in your "tea party express".  So below is a copy and paste of Cobra's email to me this morning, in response to the article (which is available at the end of the post!).

Cobra:

"18% of Americans identify themselves as Teabaggers.  Interesting - like we discovered in that earlier poll, I'm guessing half of those are "do nothing" teabaggers who are only willing to talk about their political views, not act on them.  Honestly, they really seem like very conservative versions of my parents.  And despite being "college educated", they're clearly not that smart.  I mean seriously, look at some of the quotes:

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“I just feel he’s getting away from what America is,” said Kathy Mayhugh, 67, a retired medical transcriber in Jacksonville. “He’s a socialist. And to tell you the truth, I think he’s a Muslim and trying to head us in that direction, I don’t care what he says. He’s been in office over a year and can’t find a church to go to. That doesn’t say much for him.”

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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.”

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Wow.  Like, wow.  Seriously?  These people are clearly the hyper conservative among us - even worse, a lot of them apparently aren't quite sure what they think.  Like, they want to "make the government smaller", but they don't want to cut Medicare or Social Security - when asked about how to make government smaller while still keeping those two programs, they talk vaguely about "eliminating waste".  Quite honestly, these people just seem angry and afraid - afraid at having a black president.  Afraid about the economy.  Afraid about things for no good reason - I mean come on, apparently most Teabaggers haven't lost their jobs, but they apparently "know someone who has".

I still maintain - the Teabagger movement is fundamentally a splintering of the Republican party.  Again, this poll reiterated what we knew from the previous one months ago: Teabaggers are Republican; Democrats aren't losing anything here.  These people weren't ever voting democratic to begin with.  I'm very curious to see how this fracture in the Republican hegemony plays out - because note, although most people blame the Bush administration or "Wall Street" for the current economic issues, these Teabaggers apparently blame "Congress".  Not Obama.  Not the Democrats.  Congress.  That includes incumbent Republicans.

One key issue going into this coming November is exactly how the economy will play out.  The markets seemed to handle Greece pretty damn well (the general consensus?  it was a great but brief buying opportunity), and quite honestly I think that as long as people's expectations remain low, they're going to be pleasantly surprised over the coming year.  As the poll indicates, Teabaggers are especially dismal about the general economic outlook.  But let them sit on health care for a few months without the world falling apart around them - they aren't going to have to pay any more right now than they did before (remember?  most are employed, well paid, and almost certainly have corporate insurance plans themselves), and after awhile they'll forget their fleeting emotional reactions and stop being so fearful about Obama and the Democrats.  However, given human nature, they won't forget who they blamed for this mess - congress, both Democratic and Republican.

Score one, liberals!"

Poll Finds Tea Party Backers Wealthier and More Educated