A new national survey from Public Policy Polling (D), as well as surveys from other firms, shows that Republican politicians might just be right when they say that the Occupy Wall Street protests aren’t cut from the same cloth as the Tea Party protests — in fact, survey respondents are more likely to support Occupy Wall Street.
The poll asked registered voters simply this: “Do you support or oppose the goals of the Occupy Wall Street movement?” The result: Support 35%, Oppose 36%.
The next question: “Do you support or oppose the goals of the Tea Party movement?” The result: Support 39%, Oppose 45%.
And then this comparative query: “Do you have a higher opinion of the Occupy Wall Street movement or the Tea Party movement?” The result: Occupy Wall Street 40%, Tea Party 37%, with OWS leading within the poll’s ±3.7% margin of error.
Now keep in mind that this is not a true apples-to-apples comparison. (Or, perhaps, it could possibly be a comparison of old apples to new ones.) The simple fact is that the Tea Parties have been around for two and a half years, while Occupy Wall Street has been around for just under a month.
As such, more people are familiar with the Tea Party, and negative impressions have built up over time. But with something newer like Occupy Wall Street, there will be more undecideds, or answers that are in truth only leaning one way or the other, and a lot more malleability to public opinion. It’s too soon to tell what will ever happen with occupy Wall Street, but clearly its own image is still far away from being locked in.
In addition to PPP, a new Time poll includes a description of the protesters and their point of view: “In the past few days, a group of protestors has been gathering on Wall Street in New York City and some other cities to protest policies which they say favor the rich, the government’s bank bailout, and the influence of money in our political system. Is your opinion of these protests very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable, very unfavorable, or don’t you know enough about the protests to have an opinion?”
The answer: Total favorable 54%, total unfavorable 23%.
By contrast, a separate question asked respondents whether they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the Tea Party movement. The answer: Total favorable 27%, total unfavorable 33%.
Also, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll –Â which described the protests more simply as “sit-ins and rallies in New York City and other major cities around the country with people protesting about the influence Wall Street and corporations have on government” — found that 80% of respondents had seen some or a lot of news coverage about the protests. Those 80% of respondents who knew of the protests were then asked: “From what you know about these protests do you tend to support or tend you not have an opinion either way?”
The answer: Tend to support 37%, tend to oppose 18%.
By contrast, the poll also asked: “Do you consider yourself a supporter of the Tea Party Movement?” The result: Yes 26%, No 64%.
And finally, a CNN poll question included a description of Occupy Wall Street: “Occupy Wall Street is a movement that denounces inequalities in the financial system that they claim favor the wealthy. The group seeks social change to address these inequalities through their activities which include protests, gatherings and commentary on social media, such as Twitter and Facebook. In general, would you say you agree or disagree with this group’s overall position or do you have no opinion?”
The result: 27% of Americans agreeing, to 19% disagreeing.
