Democracy Corps Report: The Republican Party is Really the Tea Party

Democracy Corps has just released a special report all about the Tea Party. Here are the main items of interest as told by Balloon-Juice:

• 47% of Republicans identify as Tea Party supporters.

• For all the talk about hating TARP, Tea Party members are overwhelming pro-big corporation.

• Tea Partiers are not blue collar not populist, and not affected by the recession more than the general population.
• Tea Partiers are a little older than the general population on average but not that much.

• Tea Partiers are less religious than other Republicans.

• “It is hard to overstate how much influence Glenn Beck has with these people….they view him as a historical scholar….they talk about him the way a graduate student talks about their adviser”—James Carville, from the call (the last part of my quote is approximate, the beginning is verbatim).

• Tea Partiers love Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh…but not as much as they love Glenn Beck.

• Tea Partiers are focused on beating Obama and may think more tactically in 2012 than some believe.

• The Tea Party may attract nuts and these nuts may be racists, but in general Tea Partiers make their anti-Obama arguments without reference to race.

So, there you have it in a nutshell. So, far all the Republicans who are Tea Party supporters on the down-low, please, just be who you really are. Let's see if the Tea Party will help the GOP make serious inroads in the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate come November. As it stands right now, Harry Reid has surged by wingnut Sharon Angle for the Nevada Senate seat. As far as I am concerned, I do agree with many of the issues raised by the Tea Party, but I have a big problem with the perceived racial undertone that has led to infighting between the Tea Party Express and the Tea Party Federation, that is trying to do the right thing. Mark Williams is a racist and the sooner he admits that, the better off the Tea Party Express movement will be without him.