The notion that the emerging Tea Party movement only appeals to a largely White, middle-age male-dominated group could be wishful thinking on the part of the Democratic Party, according to a new poll released Sept. 24, 2010 by Pajamasmedia.com
The poll of 1,000 likely voters shows that 35 percent of likely Black voters support the Tea Party movement and 17 percent support it strongly, according to J. Vik Rubenfeld, the conservative media company’s polling director.
“Questions of racism within the Tea Party have been raised for months now,” Rubenfeld said in a statement. “Our survey found that more than one-in-three African Americans support the movement. Moreover, the data revealed that 32 percent are also likely to vote for a congressional candidate whom the Tea Party supports.”
The poll also found that 38 percent of Blacks who support the Tea Party keep it to themselves. This is not surprising considering that establishment Democrats and Republicans view the movement as a threat to their monopoly on power.
Untrue Stereotype?
“Democrats and leftists have attempted to define the Tea Party movement as a collection of angry White bigots. However, the PJTV poll of Black voters shows the wheels on the race card bus are beginning to fall off,” said Joe Hicks, the network’s host of the Minority Report and a former executive director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
In addition, the poll found that 34 percent of the Black respondents said they publicly supported the Tea Party.
Critics of the Tea Party from both parties say that while its members are no doubt energized, they have offered no specific solutions to solving the budget deficit, providing health insurance to a poorer and grayer American population and solving the mushrooming unemployment and outsourcing of domestic jobs.
In fact, leaders of both parties are finding fault with the movement.
On CBS’s Face the Nation former Democratic President Bill Clinton said that stances by Tea Party members that characterize “unemployment insurance” and “student loans” as being unconstitutional are troubling.
“Do they really want to repeal the student loan reform bill at a time when we’ve fallen from first to 12th in the world in the percentage of our people with college degrees and it’s really important to the economy?” Clinton asked.
Meanwhile, Karl Rove, former top advisor to Republican President George W. Bush, found himself at odds with Tea Party when he refused to support their candidates like Christine O’Donnell, who is running for a Senate seat in Delaware.
Exhausted Black Middle Class
Perhaps Vera Hall, a self-described middle-class Black American, best described what many of those surveyed in this new poll feel when she spoke directly to Barack Obama at a town hall meeting earlier this week.
‘I’m exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now,” she said.
