What Real Populism Looks Like

A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows that Americans support the Occupy Wall Street protests by a two-to-one margin, while more Americans view the Tea Party negatively than positively.  As the shown by the chart on the left, produced by Think Progress, the OWS protests have a net favorability of +19 percent while the Tea Party has a net favorability of -13 percent.

 In another poll, by Time Magazine, 54 percent held a favorable view of Occupy Wall Street and 23 percent unfavorable, compared to 27 percent with a favorable view of the Tea Party and 33 percent unfavorable.  On the right is the visual, courtesy of Mother Jones.

Importantly, as Greg Sargent points out in discussing the Time poll, "the most populist positions espoused by Occupy Wall Street — that the gap between rich and poor has grown too large; that taxes should be raised on the rich; that execs responsible for the meltdown should be prosecuted — all have strong support."