Our Minds Are Made Up - Now Let's Find Some Facts

Elisabeth Hasselbeck from the View made a blanket statement today that 40% of Americans support the Tea Party and kept repeating it as if it was fact. It reminded me of someone who has found a passage in the bible forbidding homosexuality in order to support their hostility towards gays and then keeps repeating it as if its indisputable fact. Imagine if scientists did something similar in their research - using 'facts' to support preconceived beliefs.

Ok, who cares what this bobble head says? Well I most certainly do not but it exemplifies so much of what is occurring in the media today. There is a real dishonesty in how 'polls' and 'facts' are being used - clearly mainstream media and political pundits often attempt to prove agendas handed down from on high with their 'facts' rather than facts defining their agendas. And no surprise even well done polls are being completely misinterpreted and distorted. 

So Ms. Hasselbeck  is basing her statement that 40% of Americans support the Tea party on two surveys released last week by ABC News and the Washington Post and by CBS News and the New York Times.  As is true so often the two surveys give very different impressions. The CBS/Times poll finds 17 percent of adults rate the movement favorably and 13 percent unfavorably, but their question offers the option of saying they are undecided (12 percent) or don't know enough to have an opinion (24 percent) even after they take out the 34 percent who say on a previous question that they have heard "nothing" about the Tea Party movement. The ABC/Post poll, on the other hand, finds far more who rate the Tea Party movement favorably (35 percent) or unfavorably (40 percent) because they present all adults with just those two answer choices.

What is interesting is that both polls found that many Americans know precious little about the Tea Party movement. On the ABC/Post poll, only about a third say they know "a great deal" (13 percent) or "a good amount" (22 percent) about "what the Tea Party stands for." On the CBS/Times survey, slightly more say they have heard something about the movement and believe they know "a lot" (13 percent) or "some" (27 percent) about what it stands for.

The CBS/Times survey finds only 18 percent who describe themselves as "supporters" of the Tea Party movement, and the ABC/Post survey finds just 14 percent who say they "strongly agree" with the movement's issue positions.

The ABC/Post poll found that nearly half of Americans (45 percent) say they at least "somewhat" agree with Tea Party positions on issues based on the general impression of the Tea Party movement is-- conservative, anti-Obama and anti-government. That support was greatest among conservatives (63 percent), strong Republicans (67 percent), those who disapprove of Obama (65 percent), and those who say they are angry about the way the federal government works (69 percent).

So what these polls show us is that most know relatively little about the Tea Party, that strong support is given  by only 14%, and a total of 18% describe themselves as supporters. 45% share an anger at government and disapproval of Obama -  but that can hardly be counted as strong support of the Tea Party itself. A far cry from '40% support the Tea Party'.