Americans who support the Tea Party movement are more likely to see the
size of the federal government and the national debt as serious threats
to the nation than those who are neutral or opposed to the Tea Party,
recent USA Today/Gallup polls released Monday found.
About 30 percent of Americans identified as Tea Party supporters, and
their views are roughly in line with those who identify as Republican
voters, according to an analysis of polls from March, May and June.
Eight
in 10 Tea Party supporters said they thought government was doing too
much that should be left to individuals and businesses, while that
concern was voiced much more infrequently by other voters. The analysis
also found that Tea Party supporters’ attitudes toward unemployment and
racial discrimination were indistinguishable from those of the
electorate at large.
More than three in five Tea Party supporters said the federal debt
was an “extremely serious threat,” while just 29 percent of Tea Party
opponents held that view. Forty-nine percent of Tea Party supporters
cited the “size and power” of the federal government as a similar
threat, while 12 percent of Tea Party opponents felt the same way.
Most of the data was collected from a survey of 2,063 adults during
separate periods in May and June. The margin of error was plus or minus
3 percentage points.