With polls showing growing public opposition to the Tea Party movement, I had questions as to whether the Occupy Wall Street movement would receive public support. I initially suspected that most people might not pay attention to the views promoted by OSW and might be turned off by what might come across as another extremist group, especially with a word such as “occupy” in their name. Americans deserve more credit, both seeing through the misnamed Tea Party movement and showing support for the actual goals of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Two recent polls show a considerable difference between public opinion regarding the two groups.
Greg Sargent reported on one poll from Time Magazine:
Despite nonstop GOP and conservative disparagement of the Wall Street protests, the most detailed polling yet on Occupy Wall Street suggests that the public holds a broadly favorable view of the movement — and, crucially, the positions it holds.
Time released a new poll this morning finding that 54 percent view the Wall Street protests favorably, versus only 23 percent who think the opposite. Interestingly, only 23 percent say they don’t have an opinion, suggesting the protests have succeeded in punching through to the mainstream. Also: The most populist positions espoused by Occupy Wall Street — that the gap between rich and poor has grown too large; that taxes should be raised on the rich; that execs responsible for the meltdown should be prosecuted — all have strong support.
Meanwhile, the poll found that only 27 percent have a favorable view of the Tea Party. My handy Plum Line calculator tells me that this amounts to half the number of those who view Occupy Wall Street favorably.
Think Progress reported on this poll as well as another poll with similar results:
The new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows that Americans support the Occupy Wall Street protests by a two-to-one margin (37 percent in favor, 18 percent opposed) while more Americans view the Tea Party negatively (28 percent in favor, 41 percent opposed). This means the Occupy Wall Street protests have a net favorability of +19 percent while the Tea Party has a net favorability of -13 percent…