TPM: Occupy Wall Street Demographic Survey Results Will Surprise You

[cal04]

http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-demographic-survey-results-will-surprise-you.php?ref=fpblg

We now know what they want, what social networks and online tools they use and who doesn’t like them. But just who are the Occupy Wall Street protesters?

Over a month since the demonstrations began in New York’s Zuccotti Park, two demographic surveys of the movement and its supporters are now available online, both of them containing surprising, perhaps even counter-intuitive findings about the makeup of the movement and its supporters.
70% of #OWS Supporters are Politically Independent
http://www.occupywallst.org/

Politically independent
Among other striking findings, Codero-Guzmán discovered that 70 percent of the survey’s 1,619 respondents identified as politically independent, far-and-away the vast majority, compared to 27.3% Democrats and 2.4% self-identified Republicans.

“That finding surprised me based on what I had heard in previous conversations about the movement” said Codero-Guzmán in a telephone interview with TPM on Wednesday. “I wasn’t expecting many Republicans, but I was expecting more self-identified Democrats. In recent years, there’s been an increased interest in who political independents are and what political views are and what are their levels of interest in particular issues, which will only continue as the election cycle progresses.”

[cui bono]

1. "This is a highly educated sample."

92.1% of the sample has some college, a college degree, or a graduate degree.

27.4% have some college (but no degree), 35% have a college degree, 8.2% have some graduate school (but no degree), and close to 21.5% have a graduate school degree.

[monmouth]

2. Of course they responded they were "independent." That's the point.

I have no doubt there are many dems and libs there but for the sake of public consumption, independent is the safest way to go. They are not going to self-identify themselves but their actions speak for them. Smart move on their part.

[dkf]

3. Obviously they had given up on politics already or they would be protesting in DC.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Jaysus!!!!!!!

[dkf]

5. All their requests are addressed through policy so logically they should be making requests to DC.

The fact they aren't speaks volumes.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. They're addressing D.C.'s bosses.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. And they are all over INCLUDING DC

:-)

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

17. I'm amazed at the longevity of the poster.

"Bill-O" ringing through my head.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Well I am back home

Camera is charged..


Once tummy stops really bugging I will go downtown to get photos and document. (I suspect I got a flu)

I am sure some people here will look for excuses to keep from seeing the obvious.

[TBF]

13. lolol - you are getting very brazen lately. nt

[mod mom]

10. I bet if they asked who they supported in the past, the % of Dems

would jump. I now say I am an independent where in the past I was a very dedicated Dem. If they would practice what they used to preach, I wouldn't have changed. I no longer will vote for corporate Dems. period. no more better of 2 evils.

[LWolf]

11. I'm a registered Democrat, but I would accurately identify myself

as an independent. I WAS independent until 2000, when the selection led me to register with the Democrats.

Now I'm a registered Democrat, but I am not a partisan. I support Democrats when I think they are worthy of support; I don't when I don't.

I'm just as independent as ever, regardless of how I registered to vote. My DU handle is accurate.

[msongs]

6. they reject the right wing Obama/Dems and the farther right wing repubs. good for them nt

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. Most people in autonomous social movements consider themselves independent

That's kinda the definition of an autonomous social movement.

:rofl:

[Scuba]

8. The reason 70 describe themselves as "politically independent" is that...

...the Democratic Party is way too far right for them.

[starroute]

12. Any chance this will end the myth that independents are "centrists"?

Once of the recent problems with the Democratic Party is that they know they need the support of independents to win elections -- but they keep falling into the trap of thinking those independents are moderates, centrists, or are located at some mythic point exactly halfway between standard Democratic and Republican positions.

If we could simply get the idea across that a large number of independents are disaffected Democrats who are looking for positions that are further to the left -- or non-Democrats who were further left to begin with -- it could significant change the shape of elections.


On edit: For that matter, there's also the larger myth that the Democratic Party represents the extreme leftward margin of acceptable political discourse and that anything beyond that is either non-existent or un-American. That one's mainly perpetuated by the media -- and it would be even more useful to knock it out of the picture.

[Bandit]

15. There is nothing wrong with being an Independent.....

It is too bad they didn't ask political leanings of the Independents such as Liberal or Conservative.. I would be 90% of all the "Independents" occupying Wall Street would fall into the Liberal catagory...

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. Good. The politicians are the paid middlemen for the oligarchs.

"History has tried to teach us that we can't have good government under politicians.  Now, to go and stick one at the very head of government couldn’t be wise." Mark Twain