Teabaggers - Not A Broad-Based Movement

The Winston Group, a Republican polling organization, released a new poll in the last few days which said that about 40% of teabaggers are either independents or Democrats. Since the poll came out, right-wingers have jubilantly claimed this proves the teabaggers are a broad-based movement, and not just a fringe element of the conservatives. This is simply not true. What it really shows is just how small the teabagger "movement" really is.

Let us look at three polls that examined the same thing (results are pictured above). The Gallup Poll (shown in green) asked people if they supported the teabaggers. The Winston Group (shown in orange) and the CBS Poll (shown in blue) asked people if they were a part of the teabaggers.

Gallup shows that while nearly 50% of Republicans said they supported the teabaggers, only 30% of independents and only a miniscule 7% of Democrats supported the teabaggers. Put another way, 70% of independents and 93% of Democrats do NOT support the teabaggers.

CBS and Winston figures look even worse for the teabaggers. They show that only 30-35% of Republicans, 18-20% of independents and 2-5% of Democrats would identify themselves as a part of the teabaggers. That doesn't look like a broad-based movement to me, since 80% of independents and 95% of Democrats (not to mention 65% of Republicans) would not identify themselves with the teabagger group.

Frankly, this looks more like a small group that probably won't grow any larger. They are mainly made-up of conservatives and other anti-establishment types. If they join with Republicans, they might have a small effect on the coming election, but if they try to go it alone they will go down to a crushing defeat. Gallup shows that across all groups, they only have about 37% support.

Another figure from Gallup makes this very clear. It seems the teabaggers have about the same support as socialists do. While 37% of respondents had positive feelings toward teabaggers, 36% of respondents said they had positive feeling about socialists. The socialists, who the teabaggers claim to hate, are just as popular as they are.

The teabaggers are not a broad-based movement. They are a fringe group just like the socialists (although I hate to admit that). Neither group will control the next election. For the time-being at least, America is a middle-of-the-road country and the winner in November will be the party that voters identify as being in the middle.

I hope the Republicans keep on identifying themselves with the teabaggers. By doing so, they give the Democrats that middle by default, and the election.