About that “poll of Tea Partiers”

by David Safier

I've been hearing the stats from this week's NY Times/CBS News poll about the demographics and attitudes of Tea Partiers.

At least, that's how I've interpreted the results — as a polling of people active in the Tea Party movement.

Wrong.

The stats are from a phone poll where people were asked if they were “supporters of the Tea Party movement.”

Huge difference. Anti-Obama Republicans who have never walked around with signs — Tucsonans who never picketed Giffords' office — can easily call themselves supporters of the Tea Party movement, because they respond in a general way to the anger they hear — or simply because the Tea Party movement is pushing issues in their economic self interest.

I imagine lots of health insurance execs and people in the financial world would call themselves "supporters of the Tea Party movement" — if only because they view the protesters as suckers who are working for moneyed interests even if they're not aware of it.

Have you ever responded to a phone poll? You're asked black-or-white, yes-or-no questions that can't be answered honestly if you're in a gray area. When you choose, you're often saying, "Yes" when you're 60% in agreement. If you're pinned down on issue-by-issue specifics, you don't look nearly so supportive.

Apparently, 18% of the people who responded to the phone survey called themselves supporters of the Tea Party movement. That means they relate to the anger they hear for one reason or another. If they're better off and better educated than the average American, that doesn't mean that the people we see at the rallies are better off or better educated.

If I made the wrong assumption here, I imagine lots of other people did as well.