NY Times Poll Finds Tea Baggers To Be Angry, Wealthy And Confused

Yes. I said ‘Tea Baggers’. It’s so wrong, yet feels so so right rolling off the tongue.

There was much hope in this new ‘movement’ when it first appeared on the political scene in 2009. Since that time, however, every fringe group in the country has apparently gravitated toward tea bagging.

And what a ‘movement’ that have become.

Until now one could have assumed that all the ‘fringe’ heard about the Tea Party was maybe being overplayed by the media. A recent poll by the NY Times, however, has now quite solidly shown a large percentage of the Tea Partiers to be angry, white males who are afraid the current administration is going to take all their money away and give it to poor people and blacks.

No Robin Hoods in this group. No sirree.

“He’s a socialist,” said Kathy Mayhugh, 67, a retired medical transcriber in Jacksonville. “And to tell you the truth, I think he’s a Muslim and trying to head us in that direction, I don’t care what he says. He’s been in office over a year and can’t find a church to go to. That doesn’t say much for him.”

“The only way they will stop the spending is to have a revolt on their hands,” Elwin Thrasher, a 66-year-old semiretired lawyer in Florida, said in an interview after the poll.

Nearly three-quarters of those interviewed who favor smaller government said they would prefer it even if it meant spending on domestic programs would be cut.

But in follow-up interviews, Tea Party supporters said they did not want to cut Medicare or Social Security.

“That’s a conundrum, isn’t it?” asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin, Calif. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.” She added, “I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I’ve changed my mind.”

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NY Times Poll