A study performed by polling 4500 Tennessee and North Carolina voters concluded Tea Partiers:

  • “ fear change.”
  • “are more likely to . . . harbor negative attitudes toward immigrants.”
  • “value deference to authority and libertarianism.”

Don’t knock the conclusions:

The findings are based on a telephone poll of nearly 4,500 registered voters in North Carolina and Tennessee conducted last year. The researchers also conducted 10 interviews and kept track of any signs and costumes at a tea party rally in North Carolina.

The news story did not list the questions or explain the polling procedures. It is as if the article wants to anger the reader into believing Tea Partiers are a crazy, mixed-up lot of loonies; and only Progressives who despise the Constitution bother to read it:

“The (tea party) supporters’ inconsistent views of the Constitution suggests that their nostalgic embrace of the document is animated more by a network of cultural associations than a thorough commitment to the original text,” the report states.