Slowly but surely, a demographic profile of the Tea Party movement – which began just over a year ago and is now dominating the news as Tax Day arrives – is emerging.

A comprehensive poll conducted for the New York Times and CBS News and released late Monday CBS News/New York Times essentially found what anyone watching a couple minutes of news footage of a rally would intuit: the 18 percent of the nation that identifies with the Tea Party movement tends to be white, male, older than 45 and Republican. And also hypocritical: despite their anti-spending rhetoric, Tea Party supporters told pollsters that two of the federal government’s most money-consuming programs, Social Security and Medicare, are worth the cost to taxpayers (maybe not a surprise, given the Tea Partiers’ average age).

Interestingly, despite the frequent framing of the Tea Partiers as a predominantly blue-collar, the NYT poll also found that they are wealthier and better-educated than the public as a whole. And half of them think the Obama administration’s policies favor the poor.

If you stopped there, you might think this is largely a class-based movement, built on the principle of “I got mine.” But there’s more to it than that: 25 percent of the movement’s supporters think that the administration favors blacks over whites (compared with 11 percent of the general public).

This point is reinforced by a study released last week by the University of Washington, which discovered that people who think that “the U.S. government has done too much to support blacks” were 36 percent more likely to support the Tea Party than those who didn’t think so. Among whites who approve of the Tea Party, only 35 percent said they believe blacks are hard-working, only 45 percent believe blacks are intelligent, and just 41 percent believe that they’re trustworthy. (Curiously, the UW poll was only conducted in seven battleground states.)

While the Tea Partiers take pains to avoid appearing racist, they’re still operating at the nexus of class and race. This seems to have reached a head with healthcare reform. The UW survey’s director, Christopher Parker, summed it up this way: “While it's clear that the Tea Party in one sense is about limited government, it's also clear from the data that people who want limited government don't want certain services for certain kinds of people. Those services include health care.”

The UW survey shows Tea Partiers’ concerns with federal government spending are bound up with fears of having to share “their” benefits with people who aren’t deserving – and who also happen to be non-white.

http://www.salon.com/news/the_numerologist/2010/04/15/who_are_the_tea_partiers/index.html

Once again, as usual, Libs choose to resort to name calling. But this time, they resort to " polls " to say that the Tea Party is racist.

It just never stops.

It's actually rather sad.

Know what....I personally don't give a rat's *** WHAT color someone is. If they are sitting around expecting the government to take care of them, yeah..I have a slight problem with that.

It was obvious at their rallies.

It is actually sickening that we still have that kind of ignorance in this country. So much intelligence to be had and it seems some people run from it.

re-quote from the article:

Obvous at their rallies??

Odd how you can COMPLETELY miss the number of African Americans seen at those rallies.

Actually...not so odd. I would expect no less.

There are racist African Americans who do not like their own kind. Their are stupid people in all races who buy into racist ideals without even knowing they do it too.

In otherwords that proves nothing

Annnnnnnddddddd...your point??

My Mom collects Social Security.

Oddly enough....the Libs ( of course ) pick one particular thing to focus on, while ignoring the forest for the trees.

Yes, Social Security is a necessity. So is Medicare.

What isn't necessary is all the other bullspit taxes they keep piling on people.

Have ya heard about the tax that the government wants to impose on radio stations for playing music??

Think that is a necessary tax??

That's why the T.E.A. in Tea Party stands for " Taxed ENOUGH Already " A lot of the position focuses on forcing government to make due with what they HAVE. And to stop considering the American people their own personal ATM machine that they can just pluck money from whenever they want to.

Sometimes, the Liberals around here are truly pathetic.

Oh wow.

You can justify ANYTHING....lmfao

It being the truth always makes it easy for me.

Then again...it seems to be just as easy for you to be full of crap...lmao

You wish that was so.

I'm not a liberal lol... I only said 4 words (requote from original article) and you are fuming at me while I'm just quoting you the article which wasn't written by me.

I suspect the government itself is behind the tea-partiers. Create an opposition that you are in complete control of. What needs to be looked at is the end game of the tea party movement - it will provoke civil uprisings justifying the U.S. government to further erode the rights of its citizens and enact more unconstitutional laws.

Not at all.

Wishing isn't necessary. Sometimes ( not ALL the time, though ) you really are...lmao

The Tea Party was originally formed by Dr. Ron Paul supporters, who opposed both the GOP and the Democrats. Constitutionalists, Libertarians.

No they did not like neithe John McCain, neither Sarah Palin at all.

Now it's hijacked by the disfranchised and disappointed GOP neocons.

Wasn't " fuming " at you. LOL

However, you picked out the one part of the article which claims to show " hypocrisy " when it really doesn't.

That's just the way the Libs want to see it.

If you aren't one of them, that's fine. Even if you were, that would be fine too.

I, unlike many others, don't hate anyone who doesn't agree with me.

And, just to be clear, I don't believe in all the Tea Party positions.

Oh yea you do wish I was wrong...lol