Understanding the Tea Party phenomenon.

Democracy Corps conducted an analysis of the teabaggers and some of what they learned was expected, but some was not.

While many of the Tea Party supporters are also frustrated with the Republican Party of TARP bailouts, that does not alter the character of the movement:

• 86 percent of Tea Party supporters and activists identify with or lean to the Republican Party.
• 79 percent identify as conservatives.
• They are among the most pro-big business segments of the electorate: 54 percent rate it warmly and 20 percent coolly.
• The Tea Party movement is not particularly blue collar. Tea Party supporters are slightly less likely to be college-graduates than the likely electorate (41 percent, versus 45 percent), and the activists more so (48 percent). And 85 percent of the supporters are white.
• Only 5 percent report having voted for Obama in 2008.

More features of this somewhat monolithic, unsophisticated group are as follows:

• They are fired up – 94 percent of the supporters say they are almost certain to vote.
• They share a great disdain for President Obama, with over 92 percent disapproving of Obama’s performance, and 89 percent strongly. Only 6 percent think Obama ‘shares their values.’
• They share a coherent, anti-government, conservative ideology that wants small government, little spending and returning the country to the Constitution.
• They are united against “Obama’s Socialist Agenda” – that puts the country gravely at risk.
• They deeply identify with Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and the NRA – which share their worldview – re-enforced by the echo-chamber of Fox News, their main source of news.
• They are gaining energy from the prospect that they can stop Obama in this year’s election, save the party from fake conservatives and use the Republican Party to save the Constitution.

Other indications of their intellectual laziness and weakness for snake oil salesmen is their adoration of Glenn Beck who they consider, get this, an "educator":

I like the way he’s trying to get back to the basics of the Constitution of the United States because I think that’s where our government is losing focus. They’re trying to change the Constitution or somehow twist it…

He brings out facts… And he actually shows the people saying the things. It’s not like just sound bites. It’s not chopped and really edited. And he is scary because every time I watch the show, which is pretty much every day, my heart feels…and I feel like I want to do something.

He really does his research and he really lays it out to you well; a good professor.

I don't think we have to look much farther than Fox News and Glenn Beck's ridiculous program to understand just how these people became so incredibly misinformed about the Obama administration and the history of this nation.

The one bright spot in this analysis seems to be that even though thses people appear to be woefully ignorant and easily duped they STILL recognize that Sarah Palin is not equipped to be President.

I mean, I don’t mind her. I think she was, you know, okay. I mean, I don’t think she was right for the job certainly. I don’t think she was experienced enough but I didn’t mind her.

I sometimes a little bit wonder because she just seems to kind of just repeat herself with the same things. It just seems like if you see her last year and you see her three months ago, she’s saying the same things. I’m certainly supportive of her, but I guess I’m a little disappointed that she seems so stagnated.

I kind of equate her on the same parallel as Bush; a likable person, kind of out of her element when it comes to the big league, not well informed but a very likable person.

I think she’s genuine, but I don’t think she’s educated enough. I don’t think she’s savvy enough and I don’t think she knows enough actually to, you know, let’s put it this way there’s no way that she’s going to go anywhere. I mean, it’s just, I don’t see it. I don’t see it happening. I don’t see her becoming another one that’s going to be electable.

Hmm interesting.  I guess even Fox News cannot dumb down their viewers enough for them to actually elect somebody as completely unqualified as Sarah Palin to run the country. Good to know.

In fact, according to Wonkette, some Team Sarah members are becoming worried that Fox News has turned on their preening political princess:

Team Sarah knows that the only place truth can possibly exist is in their teevee box, when it’s tuned to Fox News. But what happens when Fox News talks about Sarah Palin and it’s not in the religiously masturbatory way they do at Team Sarah? Is Fox News starting to HIDE the truth that Sarah Palin is your best friend and a national hero who speaks the word of God Himself?

I know that part of the many freedoms that we enjoy in this country is the freedom to choose WHERE we get out information, or in the case of Fox News misinformation, but wouldn't it be great if some of these whack jobs could be picked up in a white van, evaluated by a mental health professional, and then prescribed 72 hours of the Rachel Maddow show, just to clear the fog out of their tiny little pea brains?

Would THAT be so wrong? 

Of course I guess such an abrupt change from the information free atmosphere of Glenn Beck to the factually based world of Rachel Maddow might give their frontal lobe a kind of intellectual whiplash.