It looks like the tea party movement has finally hit the big time as sociologists have undertaken a study of its members. And unsurprisingly the study concludes the movement is irrelevant, but then what else should we expect from the elites who run our universities.
Sociologists at Vanderbilt University and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill conducted a survey of 2500 registered voters in North Carolina and have concluded tea partiers are Republicans with a touch of libertarianism thrown in. The study concludes that members of the party all share four major traits - authoritarianism, libertarianism, fear of change and anti-immigrant sentiment. Without the questions available, it is difficult to decide if this is indeed the case. Depending on questions asked and the way asked, it can be very easy to skew the results of any survey to develop conclusions which the authors which to convey.
For example the survey concludes that supporters are anti-immigration.
18 percent of Tea Party supporters feel "very negatively" toward immigrants, compared with 12 percent of non-Tea Party supporters - Vanderbilt
Without the question available, we do not know if the question asked about all immigrants or illegal immigrants, a significant difference. Tea supporters have no problem with anyone who immigrated legally to this country, but the key word is legally.
The survey also concludes supporters have a "fear of change" stating:
51 percent of Tea Party supporters considered themselves "very concerned about changes taking place in American society these days," compared with 21 percent of non-Tea Party supporters - Vanderbilt
The tea party has made no secret that they are concerned about changes taking place, because they believe these changes are taking away our individual freedoms, a core principle of the movement. Characterizing this as a "fear of change" while technically correct, it is the fear of negative changes which is the concern, not all change as these findings lead us to believe.
It is no secret members of the elitist academia are against the movement agenda and take every opportunity to discredit it and this survey is just the latest attempt. The movement is a threat to the progressive agenda, one in which the few who consider themselves intellectually superior rule and make the others subservient to them. They continue to prove their theories by manipulating facts to suit their needs and then use these results to discredit their detractors.
The tea party is not going away anytime soon, in fact the true believers in the movement are becoming stronger and more resolved than ever in making America great once again.
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Comments: 8
First in your article you state that the results of the survey can not be considered either way, since no one knows the actual questions posed in the survey nor in what context the questions were written.
But, then later near the end of your article, you proceed to blatantly accuse that the institution which held survey and wrote their findings/conclusions upon the answers drawn from that survey, with purposely manipulating the facts of the survey to obtain their own desired for results.
Hey Guy, even Tea Baggers can't have it both ways, what's the old adage, "You are entitled to your own opinion, But you are not entitled to your own facts !!!
This is a data point. Even if the data is manipulated, it still provides some information.
It is this small minority, not only within the TEA Party movement, but also within the Republican party, that appears to be guiding TEA Party policy intentions. It is because of the small core of policy directors, and the fact that that base is proposing relatively radical solutions, and the unwillingness of TEA Party candidates to compromise in order to affect any change; that the TEA Party appears to be a short term phenomenon.
Their unwillingness to compromise, perhaps more than anything else, appears to be poised to make the party irrelevant. Shortly, they will be held accountable for their success (or lack thereof) in de-funding Obamacare, slashing spending, cutting programs, etc. If the TEA Party leadership stays true to its stated intent, then the TEA Party freshmen will not get re-elected with TEA Party support (due to their failure). This will continue until they either find someone who can make those changes happen, or people get disillusioned and give up. Somehow I expect that, without compromise, the latter will occur before the former.
They may end up being as successful as Whigs, but I wouldn't count on it.