Tea Seeks Its Own Level

The coverage of the Tea Party protests has often been pretty poor, as many in the media treat then like a weird but very angry group outside the mainstream.

Angry? I suppose--protestors are supposed to be angry. But they're not remarkably angry. I'd say less angry than the anti-war protestors, or the anti-globalization protestors, yet I don't recall (though it could be faulty memory) a lot of news reports emphasizing how angry those groups were.

For protestors, in fact, Tea Partiers tend to be fairly well behaved. You certainly don't hear about them rioting. Sure, they scream at politicians with whom they disagree--like every political rally ever.

A few weeks ago our very own QueensGuy claimed they were less intelligent than average citizens. Though he had some evidence, it didn't really fit with most profiles of Tea Partiers I'd seen. And now the paper of record, The New York Times, has the latest: "Poll Finds Tea Party Backers Wealthier and More Educated."

Why do I find this more convincing? Even without looking into the methodology it just makes sense. You'd expect them to be a bit richer--they're complaining about taxes and too much government spending. You'd also expect them to be more Republican, and Republicans tend to have somewhat higher education levels than Democrats.