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Who Wants to Have a Tea Party? The Who, What, and Why of the Tea PartyMovement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2012

Kevin Arceneaux  and
Stephen P. Nicholson
Kevin Arceneaux
Affiliation:
Temple University
Stephen P. Nicholson
Affiliation:
University of California, Merced
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Abstract

In the wake of the 2008 election, disgruntled conservatives organized opposition toPresident Obama's policies under a new movement dubbed the Tea Party. As an emergingforce in American politics, we seek to understand who supports the Tea Party and thepolitical attitudes these individuals hold. Using a nationally representative surveyof respondents during the 2010 midterm elections, we examine whether the emergingnarrative surrounding the Tea Party is accurate. The survey included a novelembedded experiment designed to investigate claims that animosity toward racialminorities drives Tea Party opposition to welfare. We find support for thecontention that the Tea Party is predominately white, male, conservative, andstrongly opposed to tax increases. Tea Party supporters, however, are not simplylibertarians. In spite of appeals to freedom and liberty common in Tea Partyrhetoric, a strong authoritarian pulse exists among its most ardent supporters.Furthermore, although we find evidence that racial resentment colors Tea Partymembers' judgments about government aid to the poor, racial animus does not appearto be the primary force behind their opposition to government aid. Lastly, weuncover some evidence of heterogeneity within the movement, with a small minority ofTea Party supporters voicing less-extreme political attitudes and evincing arejection of negative racial stereotypes.

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Type
Features
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PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , October 2012 , pp. 700 - 710
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2012 

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