What Tea Baggers Believe

A Bloomberg poll conducted March 19-22 by Selzer & Co. our of Des Moines examines attitudes of self-professed tea baggers.

90% believe the United States is verging more toward socialism than capitalism and that the federal government is trying to control too many aspects of private life.
70% want a federal government that fosters job creation!!!
90% say the country is headed in the wrong direction.
80% say the expansion of the government's role in the economy is a high threat!!
90% say that both political parties are behaving badly.
96% say that government spending is out of control.
50% say the government should do something about executive bonuses.
86% say that taxes are too high.
78% say that health reform is a form of "socialism"
10% say that the Veterans Administration is socialist.
12% say that management of national parks and museums is socialist.
36% say that expanding Medicare for the elderly, Medicaid for the poor and Social Security are socialism.
65% say Social Security is definitely or sort of socialism.
47% want to keep government control of Social Security
53% want to privatize Social Security and Medicare.

Who are they? 40% are age 55 and over; just 22% are under age 35. 79% are white and 61% are male. 44% claim they are "born-again" Christians.

It remind me of the wave of populism in the 1990s in rural America that stimulated the militia movement. One of the critical programs that defused the worst dimension of this phenomenon was Willie Nelson's Farm Aid. You read this poll and it screams," Get Them Jobs." The poll showed their number one concern was money in general. The Los Angeles Times ran a story how the Great Recession is disproportionately affecting males. Except for the hard-core, I imagine an economic recovery would help soothe the anxiety and fear. It's also not clear how the Republican agenda would help them in anyway.