Suicide Watch at DNC HQ: Four in 10 Tea Partiers Independents or Democrats

Go ahead, Democrats and your media lapdogs, keep insulting and smearing the tea partiers. Come November your obliteration will make 1994 look tame by comparison. Of course they'll probably just scoff at this poll and just continue to dig a bigger hole. I say have at it.

Four in 10 Tea Party members are either Democrats or Independents, according to a new national survey.

The findings provide one of the most detailed portraits to date of the grassroots movement that started last year.

The national breakdown of the Tea Party composition is 57 percent Republican, 28 percent Independent and 13 percent Democratic, according to three national polls by the Winston Group, a Republican-leaning firm that conducted the surveys on behalf of an education advocacy group. Two-thirds of the group call themselves conservative, 26 are moderate and 8 percent say they are liberal.

The Winston Group conducted three national telephone surveys of 1,000 registered voters between December and February. Of those polled, 17 percent – more than 500 people -- said they were “part of the Tea Party movement.”

“It’s a good sample size,” said David Winston, the polling firm’s director. “It will certainly give us an initial base to follow where these folks are.”

The group is united around two issues – the economy/jobs and reducing the deficit. They believe that cutting spending is the key to job creation and favor tax cuts as the best way to stimulate the economy. That said 61 percent of Tea Party members believe infrastructure spending creates jobs. Moreover, given the choice Tea Party members favor 63-32 reducing unemployment to 5 percent over balancing the budget.

It isn’t a “purely homogeneous” group, said Winston.

The group has a favorable view of Republicans generally but that drops from 71 to 57 percent if they’re asked about Congressional Republicans. Congressional Democrats are viewed very unfavorably by 75 percent of Tea Party members – a uniquely strong antipathy. An overwhelming 95 percent said “Democrats are taxing, spending, and borrowing too much.”

The group also vehemently dislikes President Barack Obama – even more so than those who called themselves Republicans in the survey. Over 80 percent of Tea Party members disapprove of the job he’s doing as president, whereas 77 percent of Republican respondents said they disapprove of Obama. The Tea Party members are also strongly opposed to the Democrats’ healthcare plan, with 82 percent saying they oppose it -- only 48 percent of respondents overall were opposed.

It's interesting to note that job creation and deficit reduction are the two primary issues motivating those polled. Democrats used to pay lip service to the deficit when it suited them and Obama has pretended to care about creating jobs while overseeing the loss of millions of them. The media mantra that it was all about taxes doesn't seem to wash.

It sure doesn't seem like the pathetic attempts at portraying tea partiers as a bunch of racist, violent extremists is bearing much fruit.

Speaking of which, after that alleged wave of violence against Democrats following their ramming of the healthcare scam down our throats, why is it we haven't seen a single arrest?

Not only that, the whole fabricated racial epithet hoax seems to be falling apart by the minute.

Thanks to Instapundit for the link.