Occupy Wall Street Support Among Americans Trumps Tea Party: Polls

By Ashley Portero | October 13 2011 3:13 PM

Americans support the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement by a two-to-one margin, while considerably less view the Tea Party in a positive light, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

Reuters

Polls from NBC/The Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine indicate more Americans support the Occupy Wall Street movement than the Tea Party. Occupy Wall Street has been called "the left's Tea Party" due to their similar grassroots origins.

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The results were based off phone interviews with 1,000 adults over a four-day period in early October. The respondents were questioned on a slew of issues, such as their opinion of President Barack Obama, the Democratic and Republican Party's, and the candidates running for the 2012 Republican nomination.

One section of the poll discusses the Occupy Wall Street protests, described 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. In response to whether they supported or opposed the protests, 37 percent of respondents said they did, while 18 percent said they tended to oppose them.

Meanwhile, only 28 percent said they viewed the Tea Party positively, while 41 percent said they opposed the group. Based on the numbers, the Occupy Wall Street protests have a net favorability of plus 19 percent while the Tea Party has a net favorability of minus 13 percent.

Many Moderates, Even Some Conservatives Support OWS

Thirty-six of the respondents told the pollsters they consider themselves to be a moderate, while 22 percent said they were somewhat conservative, 15 percent said very conservative, and 14 percent said somewhat liberal. Only 9 percent of the respondents said they would categorize themselves as very liberal.

Multiple polls have indicated more Americans support rather than revile the Occupy Wall Street movement. A Time Magazine poll conducted during the same period found that 54 percent of respondents said they were very to somewhat favorable of the protesters, while 23 percent said they felt somewhat to very unfavorably about them. Twenty-three percent said they did not know enough about the movement to have an opinion.

Meanwhile, only 27 percent said they had a favorable opinion of the Tea Party.

An impressive 86 percent of respondents told Time they believe Wall Street and its lobbyists have too much influence in Washington, and 79 percent said the income gap between the rich and poor in the U.S. has grown too large.

However, no matter how they feel about the protests, a majority of respondents do not expect them to end with lasting change. Fifty-six percent of respondents said the protests will have little to no impact on the U.S. political system.