Doctoral student Emily Ekins conducts study to clarify Tea Party misconceptions

[pampango]

http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2011/01/doctoral_student_emily_ekins_conducts_study_to_clarify_tea_party_misconceptions

Emily Ekins, a doctoral student in political science, categorized protest signs at the Taxpayer March on Washington last September by what political issues they highlighted. She then counted the signs representing each issue and compared her study to a New York Times article on the same protest. According to Ekins, the article listed the types of signs present but did not paint an accurate picture of the number of supporters each issue had. Ekins has traveled the country interviewing party leaders and conducting surveys at such events as a Tea Party convention in Virginia to discover what the driving force behind the movement is.

According to Ekins, the Tea Party, which consists mostly of Republican conservatives, is a response to the economic shock of the 2008 recession and the government’s handling of the crisis. But what truly defines the Tea Party is its supporters’ unique sense of ethical values, Ekins claims. Tea Partiers believe society should not reward bad moral decisions, so they criticize the government for bailouts and welfare. Ekins said her research has found that Tea Party members tend to emphasize individual responsibility over external factors that also contribute to socioeconomic problems.

What is unique about Ekins’ research is her assertion that there are actually two main subgroups within the Tea Party: the libertarians and the social conservatives.

The social conservatives strongly oppose abortion, same-sex marriage and immigration reform, and garner more media attention than the libertarian sect of the movement, she said. Meanwhile, the libertarians tend to be more concerned with economic issues and less with social issues.

I wonder if the researcher found that both the libertarian and social conservative wings of the tea party "want their country back" or is that the domain of one.

[Ohio Joe]

1. You mean their are still people that do not know the teabaggers are...

racist corporate tools used as thugs? I thought everyone knew that by now.

[XemaSab]

2. Izzat a fact?

:shrug:

[Erose999]

3. This is the result of my academic research relevant to the Teabagger party: