A new national survey from Public Policy Polling (D) finds public opinion souring pretty quickly on the Occupy Wall Street movement.
The poll asked: “Do you support or oppose the goals of the
Occupy Wall Street movement?” The result was only 33% support, to 45% opposed.
In the previous poll from a month ago, when the protests were fairly new and public opinion had not yet had the chance to set in, the result was a very close 35% support, to 36% opposed.
The pollster also asked: “Do you support or oppose the goals of the Tea Party movement?” The result was 42% support, to 45% opposed, similar to last month’s result of 39%-45%.
Another question: “Do you have a higher opinion of the Occupy Wall Street movement or the Tea Party movement?”
The result: Tea Party 43%, Occupy Wall Street 37%. Last month, Occupy Wall Street had a narrow advantage of 40%-37%.
From the pollster’s analysis:
I don’t think the bad poll numbers for Occupy Wall Street reflect Americans being unconcerned with wealth inequality. Polling we did in some key swing states earlier this year found overwhelming support for raising taxes on people who make over $150,000 a year. In late September we found that 73% of voters supported the ‘Buffett rule’ with only 16% opposed. And in October we found that Senators resistant to raising taxes on those who make more than a million dollars a year could pay a price at the polls. I don’t think any of that has changed- what the downturn in Occupy Wall Street’s image suggests is that voters are seeing the movement as more about the ‘Occupy’ than the ‘Wall Street.’ The controversy over the protests is starting to drown out the actual message.
The survey of registered voters was conducted from November 10-13, and has a ±3.5% margin of error.
