Tea Partiers Richer, Better Educated Than Average

Just who are the Tea Partiers and what do they believe? According to a New York Times/CBS poll, the 18% of Americans who support the movement are wealthier, more educated, and a lot more pessimistic than average. Among the poll's other findings:

• Despite the movement's origins as a tax protest organization, 52% of supporters say the amount of income tax they'll pay this year is fair.

• Tea Partiers tend to be white, male, over 45, married, and from the South. Some 54% say they're Republicans.
• Unsurprisingly, a large majority don't approve of how President Obama is doing his job. When asked what they like least about him, the most common answer was that they just didn't like him.
• Some 24% of Tea Party supporters say violence against the government is justified. Among those classified as activists—the 20% of supporters, or 4% of all Americans, who have attended a Tea Party rally or donated to the cause—that figure rises to 32%.

(More Tea Partiers stories.)