Numbers can be misleading, and we would all be well advised to take a very long, slow, deep breath before we get knotted up over the Tea-Party or Republicans with entrenched and pathological hatred of liberals in general and President Obama in particular.
Let me offer you some for instances. Depending on whose poll you happen to look through, 18% to 35% of Americans say they "support" the so-called Tea-Party movement. Gasp! That's a third of all Americans you say. And you are correct. What those numbers do not indicate is that the majority of those "supporters" are white, male, republican and over the age of 45. They are the same gaggle of dysfunctional reactionaries (angry old white guys) who thought that dry-drunk sociopath, George W. Bush, was the bee's knees and that the catastrophically ill-advised invasion and occupation of Iraq was quiet a great notion. They are the same intellectually stifled few who rely on base response from their lizard-like brain stems to guide them through life.
And, one really has to point out, according to those figures at least 82% to 65% of Americans are either indifferent or hostile to the Tea Party mob.
John Avion, of the Daily Beast adds a new phrase to our political lexicon: "Obama Derangement Syndrome" wherein 67% of Republicans believe Obama is a socialist, 57% believe he is a Muslim, 45% think he was not born in the U.S. and is ineligible to be president, 38% say, "Obama is doing many of the same things Hitler did", and 24% say they are suspicious that Obama very well could be the Antichrist".
As to that last Antichrist thingee, we all know don't we who the real Antichrist was, don't we? The deranged bozo who invented "blister paks"!
Those numbers come from a Harris poll taken at the most frothy point in the health care debate. Now, well a week ago actually, The Washington-Post and ABC released their poll which further works to isolate the nutters suffering from Obama Derangement Syndrome, henceforth to be styled as ODS...yeah, I noticed too, very close to "odds" as in how odd these people are!
The WAPO-ABC News poll renders the president's overall approval at 54%, certainly down from the post election euphoric high of 68% but on the rebound from his low of 50% back in December when Republicans were scaring the wits out of the gullible with horror stories about "socialized medicine ending Medicare" and of "Government Death Panels". Those who strongly disapprove of his job handling is at 44%, down from a December high of 49%...the swing is 9% since his tribulations of December.
Sure, these numbers can be chewed up and regurgitated about certain benchmark issues such as the economy, our current wars, the deficit, dealing with Iran and other such arcane matters of policy or along demographic lines. But, overall, more than half think the president is doing OK and those who "strongly" disapprove, 33%, are the same old upper middle-class, angry old white guys who cheer led us into a disastrous war and a deregulation primed recession and tax cuts for the wealthiest of us that now contribute so much to our budget-deficit.
All I'm saying is, were I you, I wouldn't get my knickers in a knot over the Tea Party crowd, they're same lack-wits who would support Phyllis Schafley as May Queen. Just saying.
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