On Defining The Tea Party

In case you missed it, the New York Times published an opinion piece yesterday on the nature of Tea Party members, written by two academics who have been researching the topic for years. David Campbell and Robert Putnam began speaking to folks in 2006 as part of a study into national political attitudes, and as the result of continued interviews with their subjects, became able to predict who would become a Tea Party supporter, years later.

Some of the results. The emphasis is mine:

Our analysis casts doubt on the Tea Party’s “origin story.” Early on, Tea Partiers were often described as nonpartisan political neophytes. Actually, the Tea Party’s supporters today were highly partisan Republicans long before the Tea Party was born, and were more likely than others to have contacted government officials. In fact, past Republican affiliation is the single strongest predictor of Tea Party support today.

What’s more, contrary to some accounts, the Tea Party is not a creature of the Great Recession. Many Americans have suffered in the last four years, but they are no more likely than anyone else to support the Tea Party. And while the public image of the Tea Party focuses on a desire to shrink government, concern over big government is hardly the only or even the most important predictor of Tea Party support among voters.

So what do Tea Partiers have in common? They are overwhelmingly white, but even compared to other white Republicans, they had a low regard for immigrants and blacks long before Barack Obama was president, and they still do.

And yes, they are social conservatives with a desire to see politics and religion mix. The authors make the argument that it is no surprise they support Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Gov. Rick Perry of Texas.

More important, they were disproportionately social conservatives in 2006 — opposing abortion, for example — and still are today. Next to being a Republican, the strongest predictor of being a Tea Party supporter today was a desire, back in 2006, to see religion play a prominent role in politics. And Tea Partiers continue to hold these views: they seek “deeply religious” elected officials, approve of religious leaders’ engaging in politics and want religion brought into political debates. The Tea Party’s generals may say their overriding concern is a smaller government, but not their rank and file, who are more concerned about putting God in government.

Chris Matthews interviewed one of the authors, David Campbell on his MSNBC show Hardball yesterday.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

So, Tea Partiers are conservative Republicans, and conservative Republicans are Tea Partiers. And the media is responsible for propagating the myth that it is some new, populist grassroots movement, born out of the pain of the recession. Big surprise.

The authors will be updating their book “American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us” with the results of this study. Looking forward to reading it.