The interesting factoid that the majority of Tea Party activists were women explained a great deal to me. Such as why so many people believed such outrageous nonsense. It took a few minutes of thought to put all the pieces in place - but a complete picture was the end result of the little puzzle.
We tend to think of Wingnut activists as middle-aged white guys simply because they usually are. But the Tea Party has tilted the equation in favor of the distaff side. Why?
The majority of Tea Partiers are women because that's the way most religions work. High profile charismatic individuals (usually men) develop a following (mostly women) as their congregations. The men want power (a following) and the women want someone to believe in - a 'higher' authority. It's a stereotype - but like a lot of stereotypes it holds some generalized truth.
In the religion of the Tea Party the women find that 'authority figure' in the rotund form of Rush - or Hannity - or Beck - etc. But why the difference between the Tea Party crowd and a typical Wingnut group?
Pretty simple - Conservative talk radio and TV have reached a point in their developmental growth where they have turned their shows into religions - in the sense that they have finally convinced their followers to simply believe whatever they're told - to ignore inconvenient truths and facts and simply 'believe.' Their listeners drank the Kool-aid. All of it.
And who are the majority of those folks who now simply believe whatever they're told? They are the folks who have been listening the longest - those who are most able to do that listening each day until they are finally completely brainwashed. They are stay-at-home moms and grandmoms.
This is how far the one-sided nature of Conservative talk radio and TV has taken our citizenry - particularly women. They've turned all the Conservative talking point nonsense into a religion - and their listeners into True Believers.
It seems to me that some sort of 'cult intervention' is in order - desperately - though I can't really see the nature of it. I merely see the need.