Tea Baggers- a majority ("non-Republicans" ) and yet still victims

CNN carries the waterDisgruntled Democrats join the Tea Party
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/02/democrats.tea.party/index.html
To be sure, the number of Democrats in the Tea Party movement is small. A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows that while 96 percent of Tea Party activists identify themselves as either Republican or Independent, only 4 percent say they are Democrats

http://www.bnd.com/2010/04/11/1211083/tea-party-in-collinsville-draws.html
Organizers estimated about 500 gathered at Woodland Park to unite and protest "socialist" activities and demand change. A number of speakers addressed the crowd, many of whom were carrying American flags, wearing T-shirts and caps with American flags embossed on them or toting signs protesting higher taxes and even some calling to impeach the president.

Both said they are former Democrats who have attended other Tea Party events since one of the first was held on the Arch grounds in St. Louis in February 2009.


Tea Party Movement Growing: Now Consists Of 51% Non-Republicans
http://www.americasnewsonline.com/tea-party-movement-growing-now-consists-of-51-non-republicans-904/

The March 28th USA Today/Gallup poll shows that the majority of those who support the Tea Party movement consider themselves to be either Independents or Democrats. The results of the poll showed that 49% of the supporters considered themselves to be Republican while 8% called themselves Democrats. The remaining 43% are the Independents. This is the number that is growing and changing the makeup of the Tea Party. Mainstream media has tried to convince us that the Tea Party is an extension of the Republican Party, but the numbers are starting to tell another story.


Myth-busting polls: Tea Party members are average Americans, 41% are Democrats, independents
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/04/tea-party-obama.html

Now, comes a pair of polls, including Gallup, that paint a revealing detailed portrait of Tea Party supporters in most ways as pretty average Americans. A Sunday poll -- actually three national phone surveys of 1,000 registered voters -- found that 17% of all polled, or more than 500, called themselves "part of the Tea Party movement."

The Tea Party adherents broke down 28% independent, 17% Democrat and only 57% Republican. Not coincidentally, this bipartisan breakdown has been the way that Tea Party favorite Sarah Palin has often described movement members as "commonsense Americans" worried and....

A new Gallup Poll out this morning of 1,033 finds nothing fringe about self-proclaimed Tea Party adherents; they are slightly more likely to be employed, male and definitely more conservative. But otherwise Gallup's Lydia Saad writes, "their age, educational background, employment status, and race -- Tea Partiers are quite representative of the public at large."

Tea Partiers Are Fairly Mainstream in Their DemographicsSkew right politically, but have typical profile by age, education, and employment
http://www.gallup.com/poll/127181/Tea-Partiers-Fairly-Mainstream-Demographics.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=syndication&utm_content=morelink&utm_term=Politics

PRINCETON, NJ -- Tea Party supporters skew right politically; but demographically, they are generally representative of the public at large. That's the finding of a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted March 26-28, in which 28% of U.S. adults call themselves supporters of the Tea Party movement.







Survey Methods

Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,033 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted March 26-28, 2010. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones (for respondents with a land-line telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell-phone only).

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

It seems however that some of those interpretations regarding that movement are distorted

and there is no doubt in my mind that 7% who classify themselves as liberal according to this poll are either lying or complete idiots

I find it also interesting that nothing is asked about the respondents feeling regarding race. Using terms such as conservative moderate and liberal says nothing.

I would bet most of those who say they are "independent" have very extreme right wing positions

I looked to see if there was any report of the tea baggers being told to reply as "Democrats" or otherwise. I wouldn't be surprised.

could be a supporter of the Tea Party.

I wonder why they never poll that question.

I'm starting to see a split among self proclaimed "independents". While there are a large number who are truly apolitical (and we don't really hear from them except at the ballot box), there are now a loud contingent of former rushpublicans who felt boooshie wasn't "conservative enough" and now declare to be non-aligned, yet its obvious where they fit on the political spectrum. It skews the entire picture of what an independent is now and plays into the meme that this country is "center-right". These polls are also used to "justify" this assumption...another case of research proving something rather than revealing.

we know that the early parts of the tea bagging was orchestrated from Dick Armey and Freedomworks. We also know that they have siezed on the ability to email each other. No one would be surprised if they told followers to respond to this poll or any other so as to make it seem like they are diverse.

I heard a local tea bagging women on the RW radio station claim "we are actually the majority" and I had to check it out. Now they are using the illusion of size (tv coverage of their public disruptions) to declare that they have WON!!! .... to repeated without question by the media especially Fox News