Beinart: Sam's Club Republicans

Peter Beinart, The Daily Beast: Contrary to stereotype, Tea Partiers are fairly upscale. As the Pew Research Center noted earlier this month, Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents who identify with the Tea Party are eight percentage points more likely to have graduated college than those who don't and six points more likely to earn above $75,000. ... At the grassroots, the key divide in today's Republican Party isn't between downscale Tea Partiers and affluent pro-business moderates. It's between relatively affluent Tea Partiers, who want government radically downsized, and working-class conservatives who want government to help them get ahead, the people Ross Douhat and Reihan Salam called "Sam's Club" Republicans.

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