“There were some important differences between Republican voters overall and Tea Party voters who supported Republican candidates. Republican voters were more likely to say their vote was a vote to help the Republican Party win control of Congress (37 percent) rather than to oppose President Obama (25 percent), while voters identifying with the Tea Party movement were more likely to say their vote was a vote to express opposition to President Obama (37 percent) than to help the Republican Party (28 percent),” said Dr. Robert Jones, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).
PRRI conducted the survey days after the Nov. 2 midterm election. It consisted of 1,494 interviews, from a national random sample of 3,013 adults fielded in September.
The survey also found significant differences between Tea Party voters and conservatives and white evangelicals on some social issues. These differences have the potential to turn into major cleavages in the future, said E. J. Dionne Jr., senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, who hosted a panel discussion on the survey findings, at Brookings on Nov. 17.{etRelated45717,44657}
“While white Christian conservatives and Tea Party supporters are in broad agreement on many issues, there is a harder edge to Tea Party views on immigration, multiculturalism, and Islam,” offered Dionne.
The increased propensity of Tea Party voters compared to Republican voters to oppose President Obama in the midterm elections may be another indicator of the “harder edge” to the Tea Party that Dionne described.
Tea Party Members and Compassionate Conservatism
However, the Tea Party members may have a more “critical or even hostile attitude toward multiculturalism, immigration, and the idea of compassionate conservatism put forward by former President George W. Bush,” said Dionne
For example, take the question discussed in another Epoch Times article on the question on whether the values of Muslims are at odds, that is, incompatible, with American values. White evangelicals and Christian conservatives agreed to that idea 57 and 61 percent, respectively. Tea Party members agreed in higher numbers, 66 percent.
On the percent in agreement with “Discrimination against women is no longer a problem,” Tea Party supporters were the high of the three groups at 58 percent compared to 49 and 46 percent for Christian conservatives and white evangelicals, respectively.
Finally, on the question of “Blacks and minorities receive too much attention,” the degree of agreement with the statement varied widely. Nearly 4 out of 10 white evangelicals agreed (38 percent), nearly 5 out of 10 Christian conservatives agreed (48 percent), and nearly 6 out of 10 Tea Party members agree (58 percent).
Tea Party members were less likely to support an increase in the minimum wage than either white evangelicals or Christian conservatives, writes Dionne and Brookings’ senior fellow William Galston in a paper based on the PRRI survey data.
Dionne suggests that the fissures in the Republican Party may not only come between the Republican establishment and Tea Party supporters. He suggests that Tea Party members largely reject ideas that fall under George W. Bush’s “compassionate conservatism,” which “still have some resonance among white evangelicals and Christian conservatives.”
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Tea Party ‘Hardness’
Overall, Americans prefer the use of diplomacy over military strength for ensuring peace by a wide margin, 59 to 38 percent, according to Jones.
The breakdown by the political party identification is stunning. For Democrats, 78 percent say diplomacy is the best approach for ensuring peace, and 59 percent of Independents, agree.
By contrast, the majority of Republicans, 61 percent, say military strength is the best option to ensure peace.
Members of the Tea Party are even more likely to support a foreign policy approach that emphasizes military strength over diplomacy—73 percent.
The Tea Party also leads on justifying the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information. Half of Americans say it is never justified, and nearly as many—48 percent—disagree.
Of Democrats, 62 percent say it is “never justified.” Only 36 percent of Republicans agree that it is never justified, and the number drops to 33 percent for persons identifying with the Tea Party, who say it is never justified.
PRRI describes itself as “a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and education organization specializing in work at the intersection of religion, values, and public life.”
