So we all know that the Tea Party/Birther/White Nationalist movement is a pretty insular community who are very inter-connected through social media, which creates an echo chamber and make these same crazies think they make up a significant portion of Conservatives and voting Americans. If you read some other FOX News polls you’d probably get the sense that they’re as popular too. Unfortunately there is a whole mountain of evidence that runs contrary to the tea baggers idea that they’re millions strong, and even more so in the Conservative movement, I think we’re seeing a slight return to sanity in terms of folks distancing themselves even further from the dogma of a movement that started as a protest of lower taxes and government spending but has turned into a big heaping help of crazy radical bullshit over issues that don’t even exist, let alone make sense to argue.
We’re sure as heck not out of the crazy forest yet, but if 64% of FOX News readers, almost a super-majority if you will, agree that the Tea Party movement represents a racist and conspiracy-fueled lunacy unmatched by any supposed issue they might be aligning themselves behind, then I think it’s safe to say that the Birther tide is beginning to ebb in popular politics. Sure these folks will always be around so long as Ning.com lets them have their social communities and as long as they keep doing stupid stuff and Sarah Palin continues to say retarded things, but their market for new followers is starting to get a bit shallower. Oh, and this Rassmussen Report poll that was taken during the weekend of the CPAC convention shows that only 17% of voters would choose a Tea Party presidential candidate at the ballot box. There are some really good trends represented in this poll to, such as 48% of Republicans identify with the GOP now as opposed to 39% in December. Meanwhile among Democrats and Independent voters favorability ratings of the Tea Party still rank in the single digits (the high single digits!).
Like the teenage rebel whose mixed emotions led him to do some pretty stupid shit as a kid, Conservatives are beginning to grow-up and find their rational minds again.
One Comment
Tars Tarkas
February 10, 2010 at 4:54 pmThat article has comments! Besides the usual rants about how the Tea Party isn’t about parties but let’s all support Sarah Palin and other Republicans, we got this:
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