The specificities of the tea party

The tea party supporters are often skeptical about global warming, or at least the human involvement in it. They are pro-life and in favor of the death penalty. Those are classic republican positions but tea-baggers radicalize them.

A recent poll showed that 54 percent of americans believe that the tea party is a positive thing for the american political system whereas only 22 percent see it negatively.
Another study described the typical tea-bagger: a white republican, above 45, more educated and richer than the average american.
Tea-baggers are a minority: they only represent 18 percent of the registered people.

The tea party is a very divided group. For example 80 differents factions exist in Florida only. However some regroupments have appeared such as the tea party patriots of Chicago or the tea party express of California. Those groups are separated from the tea party nation that was created at the national convention of Nashville. Values and principles can differ from one tea party group to another.

So the tea party movement is mainly regional and has local leaders, often at the state level. A considerable number of those leaders are woman. It could appear paradoxical for a conservative movement but it is due to the decentralized structure of the tea party.
One of those leaders is of course Sarah Palin. She's a symbolic leader and a relay of the movement in the media but she cannot be considered as a national leader for the tea party because nor supporters of the movement nor the rest of the population believe she's competent enough for the presidential office.

Another relay of the tea party in the media is Glenn Beck, star show host of Fox News. In fact the tea party has been using a lot the new technologies such as television or the internet with youtube for instance.

The lack of national leaders as well as a national structure is a problem for the future of the tea party. Another issue is its