More voters say the average tea party movement backer in Congress understands America’s problems better than the average congressman, although Republicans and Democrats have sharp differences of opinion.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone poll released Wednesday found that 42 percent of likely U.S. voters believe tea partiers get it, while 34 percent say the average congressman and senator isn’t clued in at all to the economic and other problems facing the country. Meanwhile, 24 percent of those surveyed said they were undecided about who knows what.
The survey of 1,000 likely voters conducted Aug. 5-6 might sound like fairly good news for House Republicans who held their ground with their no-tax, spending-cuts-only position during the debt ceiling negotiations with the White House. But it marks a 10-point drop in confidence in the tea party from March of last year when 52 percent thought its lawmakers understood the nation’s problems.
Overall, the poll found that just 36 percent of voters now have a favorable opinion of the tea party. Forty-four percent view the tea party in an unfavorable light, while 20 percent are undecided about how they feel.
The survey highlighted once again the huge differences in how Americans, who identify themselves as either Democrats or Republicans, view things.
For example, 60 percent of those identifying themselves as Democrats said they have more confidence in the average lawmaker than in tea party members. On the other hand, 68 percent of the Republicans polled gave thumbs up to the conservative GOP members.
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