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Tea Party Poll & Immigration

Posted April 15, 2010 by Patrick Young, Esq.
Categories: Federal Immigration Policy

A new poll is out from the New York Times on the Tea Party movement. Many of you know that there is a struggle within the Tea Parties over whether opposition to immigration reform should be on their agenda. Results from the poll show a movement that might pose a danger to immigration reform.

The poll shows a Tea Party movement that is overwhelmingly Republican, only 5% identify as Democrats, and that has little Latino involvement. That means that while the Tea Party will have little effect on general elections, it will push Republicans farther to the right. And without a Latino base to begin with, the overwhelmingly white movement doesn’t have to worry about alienating immigrant voters by taking extremist positions. With 82% of Tea Party supporters seeing “illegal immigration” as a “very serious issue”, we can expect a lot of heat from this corner if immigration reform begins moving in Congress.

Tea Party supporters tend to live in their own world. 63% get their news from FOX and 59% have a favorable opinion of Glenn Beck. Only 41% say Obama was born in the U.S., showing that the most extreme mass conspiracy theory of our day has penetrated the movement deeply. A disturbing 24% think that violent action aginst the government may be justified.

Those backing the Tea Party also have delusions about the extent of their movement. While only 18% of the general public said they supported the Tea Party movement, among Tea Partiers themselves 84% said the movement reflected the views of most Americans.

Anti-immigrant groups are mobilzing today to try to press the Tea Party into a harder line against immigrants. Stay tuned.

Tags : hate watch, poll, tea party

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