On Thursday, thousands of voters attended rallies and meetings across the land.
We call them "tea party" meetings.
We are learning a lot about the people attending these rallies.
CBS conducted a survey and discovered a couple of things:
"They are better educated than most Americans: 37 percent are college graduates, compared to 25 percent of Americans overall.
They also have a higher-than-average household income, with 56 percent making more than $50,000 per year."
I am not surprised that the majority is making more than $50,000! This is a movement of people who people who taxes!
They are also more likely to attend church and more conservative on the values issues!
The CBS survey is one of a few polls done about the impact of the tea parties.
I do think that the CBS survey understates the huge number of young families attending the meetings.
And I don't agree about the gender divide. It's hard to believe that only 41% are women!
Douglas E. Schoen, a pollster, is the author of "The Political Fix."
Patrick H. Caddell is a political commentator and a pollster.
They are Dems and wrote this about the tea parties and the Dem party:
"To be sure, great efforts have been made recently to demonize the Tea Party movement.
But polling suggests that the Tea Party movement has not been diminished but, in fact, has grown stronger.
The Winston Group found, in three national surveys conducted from December through February and published April 1, that the Tea Party movement is composed of a broad cross-section of the American people -- 40 to 50 percent of its supporters are non-Republicans.
Indeed, one-third of self-identified Democrats say they support the Tea Party movement.
The electorate's dissatisfaction with the established political order has led the Tea Party movement to become as potent a force as any U.S. political party.
Last week, a Rasmussen Reports survey showed that overall more Americans say that they agree with the Tea Party movement on major issues than with the president of the United States -- 48 percent with the Tea Party and 44 percent with Obama.
Among independents, 50 percent said that they're closer to the Tea Party, while only 38 percent are with Obama.
Moreover, the most recent Gallup poll shows that the Tea Party movement is at least as popular as the Democratic Party.
And the Tea Party movement stands for fiscal discipline, limited government and balancing the budget -- an agenda that has broad public support extending well beyond the movement.
Polling conducted by one of us (Schoen) found that 55 percent of respondents endorse that agenda.
More important, a solid majority of swing voters endorse it."
The "tea party voter" is passionate and well organized. They will be a huge factor in the 2010 mid-term election.
It does not help that so many Dems have mocked the movement. I think that the Dems missed a great chance to find some common ground with these voters.
P.S.: Click here for our Tea Party show:
