Dubious Doocy: Poll found "majority" of tea partiers are Dems or independents
Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy claimed that a "majority" of tea-party supporters in a recent poll identified themselves as Democrats or independents. Although Doocy did not specify which poll he was discussing, recent polling by the Winston Group found that 57 percent of tea-party supporters identified themselves as Republicans.
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Doocy repeatedly says poll found tea-party majority to be Dems and independents
Doocy: "[W]hen you look at the people who are tea-party members, over half of them are Democrat and independent." From the April 19 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:
DOOCY: [B]efore I went on vacation, I know we had that poll that showed that when you look at the people who are tea-party members, over half of them are Democrat and independent, and they know those midterm elections are coming. They've got to be nice to all those people who are going to pull that lever.
Doocy: "[T]he people who identified themselves as being members of the tea party ... a majority of them are Democrat and independent." Later in the same edition of Fox & Friends, Doocy said:
[A]s we've seen from some recent polls, apparently, the people who identified themselves as being members of the tea party or pro-tea-party people are -- a majority of them are Democrat and independent. And, in fact, there are more Democrats and independents combined than Republicans in the tea party, and so that's why it's so potent.
Winston Group: "57% of Tea Party members say they are Republican"
Polling found 41 percent of "Tea Party members" -- substantially less than a majority -- were independents or Democrats. The Winston Group conducted a series of surveys monthly from December 2009 through February 2010. The Hill described the Winston Group as "a Republican-leaning firm that conducted the surveys on behalf of an education advocacy group." In an April 1 memo about the results of its polling, the Winston Group stated:
Politically, it comes as no surprise that more Republicans and conservatives tend to be drawn to the Tea Party movement. However, independents make up a sizable portion of the Tea Party movement as well. While 57% of Tea Party members say they are Republican, another 28% say they are independent. Additionally, 13% identify themselves as Democrats.
The memo included a table of the results by party identification:
So, this is really just the beginning flailing effort to not only distance themselves from an astroturf movement THEY HELPED CREATE, but further to blame it on the opposing political party, just in case there are any untoward acts of violence.
That personal responsibility thing's a bear, ain't it, Doocy?
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Pete Rose--4,256 career hits. Pete Rose Jr.--2.
Regardless of who claims to be a teabagger, the teabag party is bought and paid for by the Republican party, probably because the party itself is too unpopular to lead anything openly.
Doocy and other Republican hacks are trying to make people believe just the opposite, that teabaggers are a grass-roots organization made up of just plain folks. They certainly are not publicizing the wingnuts behind the Teabag Express or admitting that Fox itself is simply a mouthpiece for the Republican party.
My guess is that the Republicans are currently throwing the teabaggers under the bus, cutting off funding and limiting publicity, because they have outlived their usefulness. The Republicans have to make sure the teabagging sheep are back in the fold before the November elections.
Yeah, that's it . .
[slaps face] . .
The reason is that we often assume that that conservative = Republican, moderate = Independents, and liberal = Democrat. This is not the case with the tea party crowd.
Gallup also ask the respondents to identify themselves ideologically 70% identify themselves as conservatives (the national average is 40%), 22% identify themselves as moderates (the national average is 38%), and 7% identify themselves as liberals (the national average is 21%).
The conclusion here is that a significant number of the tea partiers are not moderates but rather disgruntled conservatives (something you see immediately if you listen to what people say at these events).
Whereas the tea party movement is demographically representative (income, education, etc.) it is not ideologically representative. It is a predominantly conservative movement, plain and simple.