> Doesn't this poll counter what many here have tried to say about the
> teaparty poll results: namely that those that self represented as teaparty
> activists were upper-middle class or part of the bourgeoisie (majority
> making less than $75,000)?
In the NYT poll, 46% of strong TP supporters had a BA or higher, compared to 29% of the general population. According to this Census table, that would correspond to an income level a bit higher than $100,000 - i.e., Tea Partiers would be around the 80th percentile. The national median income is about $50,000: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/cpstables/032009/hhinc/new01_001.htm .
The TP is a solidly upper-middle class/affluent phenomenon. Also, Doug is probably right that it includes a lot of small business owners: The TP demographic strongly resembles the Pew political typology group labeled "Enterprisers," which is tied with "Liberals" for highest-income typology group - but is distinguished from liberals by its extremely high rates of business ownership and active trading of stocks and bonds.
SA