Teabag Nation
by digby
tA lot of people think the crazies are better than the stiffs:
A new Rasmussen poll reveals what many have feared: given a choice, more people would vote for a Tea Party candidate than a Republican candidate.
In a national phone survey, Rasmussen asked, “Suppose the Tea Party organized itself as a political party. When thinking about the next election for Congress, would you vote for the Republican candidate from your district, the Democratic candidate from your district or the Tea Party candidate from your district?” The Democrats had the largest percentage of votes–36% percent–but a mythical Tea Party Party beat the Republicans by five points. More than 23 percernt gave their support to the Tea Partiers and only 18 percent were willing to commit to the GOP, leaving 22 percent of voters unsure.
Even more terrifying are this poll’s breakdowns: among people who consider themselves “unaffiliated” with either major party, a third (33 percent) would back an organized Tea Party Party, 30 percent are undecided, 25 percent would vote Democrat and only 12% would vote Republican. Republican respondents went 39 percent Republican– but 33 percent would vote for Tea. The Tea Party “movement” has a 70 percent favorable rating among Republicans and 43 percent favorable rating among the unaffiliated.
Wheeee. Isn’t it nice to see them so fractured. It makes out lefty disagreements look like well — a tea party.
The problem is that the teabaggers are also likely to help drive the center of gravity in this country even further to the right since the political establishment still thinks of white people over 40 (like them) as being the personification of Real America. There’s reason to be nervous about a large number of people being steeped in that craziness even if they are marginalized at the moment.
Right now it’s mostly just a vote of discontent with the embarrassment that has become the Republican Party, but there’s no guarantee that the GOP won’t eventually absorb it. They’ve done it before. And all that happens is that the Republican Party becomes more radical and these nutty ideas are validated and mainstreamed.
Read Neiwert’s book The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right
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