In our most recent weekly poll, we wanted to gauge whether Americans had heard of the Occupy Wall Street movement and what their feelings about it were, so we included the question below:
Public Policy Polling for Daily Kos & SEIU. 10/6-9. Registered voters. MoE 3.1% (no trendlines):
Q: Do you have a favorable, unfavorable, or neutral opinion of the Occupy Wall Street movement, or have you not heard of it?
Favorable: 35
Unfavorable: 31
Neutral: 19
Haven't heard of it: 14
As you can see, a small plurality has positive views of Occupy Wall Street, but perhaps even more interesting is just how many people say they've heard of the movement. It's pretty remarkable that a brand-new effort that sprung up just weeks ago and only began receiving serious media coverage even more recently has achieved this kind of mindshare.
Attitudes toward OWS by-and-large fall along predictable partisan lines: Democrats have warm feelings and Republicans have negative ones. Independents are supportive, as are self-described moderates. The strongest positive sentiments come from self-identified liberals, who like OWS by a 69-7 margin. And in case anyone thought there was any synchronicity between this movement and the Tea Party, forget it: Tea Partiers view Occupy Wall Street unfavorably at a 12-63 clip.
One final cross-tab jumped out at me—income. Take a look:
Less than $30,000: 35-27
$30,000 to $50,000: 35-28
$50,000 to $75,000: 34-40
$75,000 to $100,000: 33-35
Over $100,000: 44-31
Declined to Answer: 24-30
The cohort with the most favorable overall views toward Occupy Wall Street are, fascinatingly, those who earn the most, over $100,000 a year. This does some serious damage to the claims of those who ignorantly holler about "class warfare." Put another way: Even people earning six figures know they are part of the 99%, too.