Their responses are like the general public’s in many ways. Most describe the amount they paid in taxes this year as “fair.” Most send their children to public schools. A plurality do not think Sarah Palin is qualified to be president, and, despite their push for smaller government, they think that Social Security and Medicare are worth the cost to taxpayers. They actually are just as likely as Americans as a whole to have returned their census forms, though some conservative leaders have urged a boycott. 
 
 Tea Party supporters’ fierce animosity toward Washington, and the president in particular, is rooted in deep pessimism about the direction of the country and the conviction that the policies of the Obama administration are disproportionately directed at helping the poor rather than the middle class or the rich. 
 
 The overwhelming majority of supporters say Mr. Obama does not share the values most Americans live by and that he does not understand the problems of people like themselves. More than half say the policies of the administration favor the poor, and 25 percent think that the administration favors blacks over whites — compared with 11 percent of the general public. 
 
 They are more likely than the general public, and Republicans, to say that too much has been made of the problems facing black people. 
 
 Asked what they are angry about, Tea Party supporters offered three main concerns: the recent health care overhaul, government spending and a feeling that their opinions are not represented in Washington. 
 
 “The only way they will stop the spending is to have a revolt on their hands,” Elwin Thrasher, a 66-year-old semiretired lawyer in Florida , said in an interview after the poll. “I’m sick and tired of them wasting money and doing what our founders never intended to be done with the federal government.” 
 
 They are far more pessimistic than Americans in general about the economy. More than 90 percent of Tea Party supporters think the country is headed in the wrong direction, compared with about 60 percent of the general public. About 6 in 10 say “America’s best years are behind us” when it comes to the availability of good jobs for American workers. 
 
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 Nearly 9 in 10 disapprove of the job Mr. Obama is doing over all, and about the same percentage fault his handling of major issues: health care, the economy and the federal budget deficit. Ninety-two percent believe Mr. Obama is moving the country toward socialism, an opinion shared by more than half of the general public. 
 
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 “I just feel he’s getting away from what America is,” said Kathy Mayhugh, 67, a retired medical transcriber in Jacksonville . “He’s a socialist. And to tell you the truth, I think he’s a Muslim and trying to head us in that direction, I don’t care what he says. He’s been in office over a year and can’t find a church to go to. That doesn’t say much for him.” 
 
 The nationwide telephone poll was conducted April 5 through April 12 with 1,580 adults. For the purposes of analysis, Tea Party supporters were oversampled, for a total of 881, and then weighted to their proper proportion in the poll. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points for all adults and for Tea Party supporters. 
 
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 Of the 18 percent of Americans who identified themselves as supporters, 20 percent, or 4 percent of the general public, said they had given money or attended a Tea Party event, or both. These activists were more likely than supporters generally to describe themselves as very conservative and had more negative views about the economy and Mr. Obama. They were more angry with Washington and intense in their desires for a smaller federal government and deficit. 
 
 Tea Party supporters over all are more likely than the general public to say their personal financial situation is fairly good or very good. But 55 percent are concerned that someone in their household will be out of a job in the next year. And more than two-thirds say the recession has been difficult or caused hardship and major life changes. Like most Americans, they think the most pressing problems facing the country today are the economy and jobs. 
 
 But while most Americans blame the Bush administration or Wall Street for the current state of the American economy, the greatest number of Tea Party supporters blame Congress. 
 
 They do not want a third party and say they usually or almost always vote Republican. The percentage holding a favorable opinion of former President George W. Bush , at 57 percent, almost exactly matches the percentage in the general public that holds an unfavorable view of him. 
 
 Dee Close, a 47-year-old homemaker in Memphis , said she was worried about a “drift” in the country. “Over the last three or four years, I’ve realized how immense that drift has been away from what made this country great,” Ms. Close said. 
 
 Yet while the Tea Party supporters are more conservative than Republicans on some social issues, they do not want to focus on those issues: about 8 in 10 say that they are more concerned with economic issues, as is the general public. 
 
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 When talking about the Tea Party movement, the largest number of respondents said that the movement’s goal should be reducing the size of government, more than cutting the budget deficit or lowering taxes. 
 
 And nearly three-quarters of those who favor smaller government said they would prefer it even if it meant spending on domestic programs would be cut. 
 
 But in follow-up interviews, Tea Party supporters said they did not want to cut Medicare or Social Security — the biggest domestic programs, suggesting instead a focus on “waste.” 
 
 Some defended being on Social Security while fighting big government by saying that since they had paid into the system, they deserved the benefits. 
 
 Others could not explain the contradiction. 
 
 “That’s a conundrum, isn’t it?” asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin, Calif. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.” She added, “I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I’ve changed my mind.” ||||| I stopped by Freedom Plaza on Tax Day to check on the progress of the nation's populist revolt. 
 
 On the stage, I saw the great populist leader himself: Grover Norquist, who, after getting two Harvard degrees, developed his common-touch lobbying for the tropical island paradise of the Seychelles. Norquist spoke from a lectern bearing a Tea Party emblem and a simple message: "The people speak." 
 
 And which people might those be? The people of the Seychelles tourist industry? Or the people of British Petroleum, Fannie Mae, the Distilled Spirits Council and the Interactive Gaming Council? Norquist represented them all, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. 
 
 If Norquist isn't convincing as man of the people, that's all right, because the Tea Party has its share of faux populists. They march under slogans such as "can you hear us now?" and "we the people," but their demands on Tax Day were more those of the angry affluent than oppressed commoners. 
 
 One of Norquist's rallying cries to the crowd summed it up nicely: "Leave our earnings alone!" 
 
 A CBS News/New York Times poll released on Tax Day found that Tea Party activists are wealthier than average (20 percent of their households earn more than $100,000, compared with 14 percent of the general population) and better educated (37 percent have college or postgraduate degrees vs. 25 percent of Americans ). 
 
 This is in line with a USA Today/Gallup poll last month that found 55 percent of Tea Party supporters had incomes of $50,000 or more (compared with 50 percent in the general population), and only 19 percent had earnings below $30,000 (vs. 25 percent overall). 
 
 The wealth advantage of the Tea Partiers helps to explain the rather un-populist message emanating from Freedom Plaza: Tax the wealthy less and the poor more. 
 
 "We found out that we're about to have 47 percent of Americans not helping on Tax Day," Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) told the crowd, referring to households that pay no federal income tax, generally because their incomes are too low. Gohmert, in an apparent criticism of tax credits for the working poor, objected to giving "a rebate to people who didn't put any 'bate' in." 
 
 Democrats had their own bout of pseudo-populism last week, but theirs involved a replacement for retiring Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court. My colleagues Shailagh Murray and Paul Kane on Tuesday wrote a story headlined: "Senate Democrats' wish list for high court: Someone with non-Ivy background." 
 
 They mentioned a favorite of Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus, both Montana Democrats: Judge Sidney R. Thomas, a product of Montana State University and the University of Montana Law School. "I can tell you, Sid Thomas is not elite," vouched Tester. Baucus lamented the large number of "Harvard grads and Eastern elites" on the court. 
 
 But the Supreme Court is precisely the place where having an "elite" legal mind is still an asset -- ask Harriet Miers. No doubt there are qualified candidates from lesser schools, and there's something to be said for judges with real-world experience. But do Democrats really want to disqualify people from the Supreme Court simply because they went to top schools? If so, they could guarantee diversity of intellect by nominating Joe the Plumber. 
 
 Alas, these lean times encourage elites of all ideologies to masquerade as populists. Fox News's Glenn Beck, a spiritual leader of the Tea Party movement, divides the nation into "the politicians and the elites who don't have the will to do the right thing or even tell you the truth, and then, the rest of us, the rank-and-file." 
 
 Yep, that's rank-and-file Beck, who, according to Forbes magazine, brings in $32 million a year. 
 
 I saw a similar contradiction on Tax Day. At a kick-off news conference, Tea Party Express leader Mark Williams, reading from his laptop (decorated with President Obama in whiteface as the Joker) declared it time to "end the abuse of the working people." He was followed by Sharron Angle, who is trying to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "I'm running for the people's seat in Nevada," she said. 
 
 But in Freedom Plaza, the messages on signs (other than those calling Obama a socialist and a traitor) were from a particular type of people, an aggrieved elite: "Stop the war on success" and "Do you think I'm made of money?" When one speaker, radio host Neal Boortz, mentioned the "47 percent of the people in this country [who] don't pay any federal income taxes," the crowd gave a healthy boo. 
 
 These populists are clearly in the upper 53 percent. 
 
 danamilbank@washpost.com
– Just who are the Tea Partiers and what do they believe? According to a New York Times/CBS poll, the 18% of Americans who support the movement are wealthier, more educated, and a lot more pessimistic than average. Among the poll's other findings: Despite the movement's origins as a tax protest organization, 52% of supporters say the amount of income tax they'll pay this year is fair. Tea Partiers tend to be white, male, over 45, married, and from the South. Some 54% say they're Republicans. Unsurprisingly, a large majority don't approve of how President Obama is doing his job. When asked what they like least about him, the most common answer was that they just didn't like him. Some 24% of Tea Party supporters say violence against the government is justified. Among those classified as activists—the 20% of supporters, or 4% of all Americans, who have attended a Tea Party rally or donated to the cause—that figure rises to 32%.