Today’s “taxpayer tea parties” may reinforce a sense of purpose among conservative activists – but at the moment they’re unlikely to resonate beyond. Recent polling shows little in the way of broad concern about taxes in general or Barack Obama’s approach to them.
In an ABC/Post poll two weeks ago, Americans by nearly 2-1 rejected the characterization of Obama as “an old-style, tax-and-spend Democrat;” 32 percent said it fit, but 62 percent instead said he’s “a new-style Democrat who will be careful with the public's money.”
Specific to income taxes, in a Gallup poll last week, 61 percent said the amount they pay is fair, a number that’s been stable since 2004. In another result, while 46 percent called their taxes "too high," that matches the fewest in Gallup polls since 1956. It was a far higher 68 percent a decade ago.
While it’s hard to find anyone who likes paying taxes, objections to them generally are overstated. When we measured stimulus preferences in January, a tepid 23 percent gave highest-level priority to a $500 tax cut for most Americans. In February, while one-third said the stimulus didn’t do enough to cut taxes, many more, six in 10, said its tax cuts were about right, or went too far.
When I read the numbers above I become more and more convinced that most Americans are stupid sheep, blindly following the Obama personality cult wherever it leads them. I'd hate to think that's true, and certainly depending on how a poll is structured you can come up with almost any result you want, but still these numbers are worrisome. All they do is empower Obama and the Democrats to keep incrementally raising your tax rates.
It's the old "frog in the cold water" parable. The frog doesn't realize he's being slowly boiled as the water temperature rises.
I think we'll see lots of stories like this today and in the following days as the fallout from the Tea Parties is measured. The media doesn't want these protests to succeed anymore than Obama does.
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