# The Tea Party: Beliefs vs. goals vs. tactics... **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 4, 2010, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tea-party-beliefs-vs-goals-vs-tactics/534871 "2010-04-04T01:24:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tea-party-beliefs-vs-goals-vs-tactics/534871/81 "2010-04-06T00:05:08Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > You do realize that self-identifying as Republican is about as popular as self-identifying as “fuck face” right now, don’t you? Last I recall, it was about [20% of the population](http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/political-media/the-incredible-shrinking-gop-only-one-in-five-self-identify-as-republican/). So, unless it’s changed substantially in the past year, that puts Republican tea-baggers at ~2.5 the concentration of the general public. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tea-party-beliefs-vs-goals-vs-tactics/534871/82 "2010-04-06T01:14:05Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > I hope you guys will take [Gallup](http://www.gallup.com/poll/127181/Tea-Partiers-Fairly-Mainstream-Demographics.aspx?utm_source=tagrss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=syndication&utm_term=All%20Gallup%20Headlines#1) as reasonably bipartisan? Depends. I hope you’ll consider what it says instead of just copying some blog?[Consider:](http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/republican-party/tea-party-movement-is-politically-mainstream-not-so-much/) > [@](#): > > The new Gallup poll illustrates this even more starkly. The 28% of Americans who identify themselves as Tea Party supporters break down this way: > > - Forty-nine percent of Tea Party supporters are Republicans, 43% are independents, and only eight percent are Dems. That means a huge majority — 92% — are Republicans or indys, and again, many of those indys could be former Republicans or lean GOP anyway. > > - Seventy percent of Tea Party supporters say they’re conservative, and only 22% say they’re moderate. And who knows what they even mean by that word to begin with. > > - A whopping 79% of Tea Party supporters are non-hispanic whites. Only 65% of Americans were non-hispanic whites as of 2008. > > - Fifty-five percent of Tea Party supporters make over $50,000 a year. > > It’s true that Gallup does conclude that the Tea Party movement is mainstream — in terms of some demographics. That’s already led to some crowing on the right. But in political terms, the simple facts are unescapable: The Tea Party movement is relatively well off, tilts Republican, and is overwhelmingly white and conservative. > [@](#): > > The characterization of them as a bunch of old white guy rednecks is just flat-out wrong. Your own cites keep proving it. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tea-party-beliefs-vs-goals-vs-tactics/534871/83 "2010-04-06T04:32:49Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > The percentage of whites is only FOUR PERCENT greater than the population average. Nope, alas, Gallup/USAToday appears to have fucked up on that one (and to nitpick, you wrote “four percent” when you meant “four percentage points”, but that’s a quibble). The poll that you linked to claims that 79% of self-identified Tea Party supporters, as compared to 75% of the total population, falls in the category “Non-Hispanic white”. But they apparently misread the [demographic data for the total population](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States#Race_and_ethnicity), which indicates that the “75% white” figure INCLUDES Hispanic and Latino whites. EXCLUDING Hispanics and Latinos from the US white population brings the white population down to only 65% of the total. So if the self-identified Tea Party supporters are in fact 79% non-Hispanic whites, that makes them about FOURTEEN percentage points “whiter” than the general population, not four percentage points. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tea-party-beliefs-vs-goals-vs-tactics/534871/84 "2010-04-06T04:48:30Z")
Well, thats damned white of them. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tea-party-beliefs-vs-goals-vs-tactics/534871/85 "2010-04-06T05:00:19Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > In fact, if 6% of the tea party is black, and 90% of the 11% of blacks in America voted Democrat, it would seem that blacks are over-represented in a conservative movement. The tea party is picking up not just blacks, but blacks who voted for Obama. How you figure? If blacks make up 6% of the self-described tea-party supporters, and if the tea-party supporters make up 28% of the US adult population, then that makes about 1.7% of the US adult population that is both black and pro-tea-party. Whereas if black adults are 11% of the US adult population, and if 65% of eligible black adults voted in 2008 (assuming for convenience that “black adults eligible to vote” equals “all black adults”), and 90% of those black voters voted for Obama, then that’s about 6.4% of the US adult population who are black Obama voters. 1.7% plus 6.4% equals only 8.1%, which leaves nearly 3% of the US adult population that is black but **neither** a tea-party supporter nor an Obama voter. So the claim that black tea-party supporters must overlap with black Obama voters seems to be total bollocks. I think you must have forgotten that “90% of black voters” doesn’t equate to “90% of all blacks”. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tea-party-beliefs-vs-goals-vs-tactics/534871/86 "2010-04-06T06:03:47Z")
> [@](#): > > - Seventy percent of Tea Party supporters say they’re conservative, and only 22% say they’re moderate. And who knows what they even mean by that word to begin with. So seventy percent of a fiscal conservatism movement identify as conservatives? This is hardly some great revelation. It’s practically a tautology. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tea-party-beliefs-vs-goals-vs-tactics/534871/87 "2010-04-06T14:20:46Z")
The pretense is that it’s a widespread, populist movement. The right wing media would desperately like people to believe it contains a lot of disenchanted Obama voters when in reality it’s virtually all McCain/Palin voters having a temper tantrum because they lost. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tea-party-beliefs-vs-goals-vs-tactics/534871/88 "2010-04-12T19:18:49Z")
[New data on Tea Party sympathizers:](http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/04/new-data-on-tea-party-sympathizers.html) > [@](#): > > tea party sympathizers believe blacks are less intelligent, hardworking and trustworthy. They appear to be particularly wary of immigrants. And they don’t much care for gays, either. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tea-party-beliefs-vs-goals-vs-tactics/534871.md?page=4)