George,

The latest New York Times/CBS poll (conducted April 5-12) provides a lot of information about the Tea Party, but some of it differs significantly from a Quinnipiac poll (conducted from March 16-21). First, the polls have different definitions of who is a “member” of the Tea Party. The Quinnipiac poll asked “Do you consider yourself part of the Tea Party movement or not?” The New York Times asked “Do you consider yourself to be a supporter of the Tea Party movement?” Only 13% are “part of” the movement whereas 18% are “supporters.” Both polls show that about half the public has not heard enough about the Tea Party to have an opinion about it, and of those who have an opinion, about as many are unfavorable as favorable.

The most interesting difference between the two polls is the educational composition of the Tea Partiers. The Quinnipiac poll found that those who feel “part of” the movement are less educated than the population as a whole with 17% having less than a high school education (compared with 11% in the population) and 22% college grads (compared with 28 percent in the population). The NYT/CBS poll showed “supporters” to be relatively well educated with only 3% having less than a high school education and 37% college grads. This educational discrepancy between these two polls is truly puzzling. I am inclined to think that the Quinnipiac poll is the more accurate given the level of ignorance of the Tea Partiers.

Both polls show Tea Partiers as relatively old, almost all white and disproportionately male. Interestingly, 70% of Tea Party supporters rate their financial situation as “fairly good” and an additional 8% say it is “very good” These are not people who have been particularly hurt by the recession. They simply hate government and taxes and have no idea how to deal with a severe recession or what caused it.

The most surprising finding I found in the NYT/CBS poll was that Tea Partiers do not see themselves as a third party movement. Over half of Tea Party supporters disagreed with the statement “some people say the country needs a third political party – a new party to compete with the Democratic and Republican parties.” Also, they have no leader. When asked which living political figure in the United States they admired most the top choice was Newt Gingrich (10% mentioned him), Sarah Palin (9%), Mitt Romney (5%) and George W. Bush (5%). The rest of the responses were scattered all over the place. (By the way, Glenn Beck got 1%).

Another interesting question was “Who do you think is mostly to blame for the current state of the nation’s economy?

Also, only 6% of Tea Party supporters blame George W. for the current federal budget deficit whereas 39% of everyone else blames W.

Finally, these people (a whopping 63% of them) get their “information” from Fox News. And 53% think “shows hosted by people like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity” are news shows rather than entertainment. Only 24% of the rest of the public see hosts like Beck and Hannity as purveyors of news; 44% realize they are entertainers.

“You can fool some of the people all of the time.”

David RePass (Electronic mail, April 16, 2010)