tea

One of the things journalism teaches you over and over again is that nothing ruins a good story quite like the facts.

Consider, for example, this week’s renewal of the chattering classes’ infatuation with the “tea party” movement, timed to coincide with the deadline to file federal income tax returns. The group is conventionally portrayed as a burgeoning populist expression of discontent that sprouted spontaneously from the grass-roots and cuts in new ways across sectional, class and gender lines.

Reams of analysis have proceeded from those assumptions, but like a great deal that’s based on anecdotal reporting, it turns out to be wrong. To their great credit, the New York Times and CBS undertook extensive, and expensive, polling that provides the first reliable look at the tea party supporters. Little that has been generally assumed survived the scrutiny.

As it turns out, fewer than 1 in 5 Americans “supports” the tea party movement in any respect, and just 4% of all adult Americans have contributed to it or attended one of its events or both. (On any given day, you probably could drum up twice as many people who think the Pentagon is hiding dead aliens in Area 51.)

Of the 18% of all adults who expressed support for the tea party, the overwhelming majority were white (89%), male (59%) Republicans over age 45 (75%) and significantly more affluent and better educated than the majority of Americans. One in five has an annual income greater than $100,000, and 37% have advanced degrees. More than 9 out of 10 think President Obama is pushing the country into “socialism.”

The survey also found that more than half of the tea party supporters say “the policies of the administration favor the poor, and 25% think that the administration favors blacks over whites — compared with 11% of the general public.”

If all this is beginning to have a familiar ring, it’s because you’ve met these guys before: They’re the “angry white males” we’ve been reading about since political strategist-turned-analyst Kevin Phillips first identified them as an electoral presence during Richard Nixon’s successful presidential campaign in 1968.

They share many qualities with other Americans. For example, while 96% of tea party supporters say they disapprove of the current Congress, 40% think their own representative does a good job, a sentiment shared by 46% of all adults, 73% of whom disapprove of the performance of Congress as a whole.

They aren’t, however, implacable foes of “big government” or even of taxes. More than half (52%) told the pollsters they think their own “income taxes this year are fair,” just 10% less than all American adults. Moreover, a majority told follow-up interviewers that, though they wanted “smaller government,” they didn’t want cuts in our largest social programs, Social Security and Medicare.

So much for the surge of a new anti-government populism.

What the movement really amounts to is old wine in new skins, a re-branding of the old-fashioned angry white male in a camera-ready package tailored to the demands of the 24-hour cable news cycle.

Let’s return to this week, for example: There’s nothing harder for TV to cover than a tax-filing deadline — no conflict, no action pictures. By staging rallies on April 15, and particularly in Washington, the tea party’s strategists made themselves and their speakers the center of cable news coverage. This was true despite the fact that, as the poll demonstrates, a majority of the movement’s supporters think their taxes are fair.

As regular readers of this column will recall, the public packaging of the tea party movement — and particularly events that win it TV airtime, like cross-country bus tours, rallies and ads — is mainly the product of California Republican political consultants, foremost among them the Sacramento-based firm of Russo Marsh and Rogers. That company has not only promoted the movement but also used it to raise money for a political action committee, Our Country Deserves Better, founded to oppose Obama during the general election. This week, Politico reported that, according to federal filings, the Our Country PAC has raised $2.7 million since launching the Tea Party Express bus tours.

“That fundraising success,” Politico wrote, “has also meant a brisk business for Russo Marsh.” The website found that Russo Marsh and a sister firm received $1.9 million of the $4.1 million in payments made by the PAC; some of those funds would have gone for TV airtime and to vendors.

It’s good to see that all the creeping socialism in the nation hasn’t silenced traditional voices, like those of the angry white male, nor wrung the profit motive from our politics.

timothy.rutten@latimes.com

SUNDAY may be a day of rest in Europe, but that’s not the case for Puerto Rico. 

The shops were shut, but the city of Ponce was very much awake.  

As I wandered the streets, locals cruised past in their vintage cars, music blasted from lively bars and groups of youngsters burst into spontaneous dance on the streets. 

In the main square, families strolled past colourful murals and beautiful yet crumbling Art Deco buildings, while old men put the world to rights over a leisurely game of dominoes in the main square. 

Ponce (pronounced Pon-say) was the last stop on my Tropical Isles cruise onboard the recently refurbished Marella Discovery. 

It’s a new port for Marella so, like ­Christopher Columbus — who discovered the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico back in 1493 — I was excited to be one of the first people to explore. 

BEST BAR NONE

Enjoy the full F1 Grand Prix plus cruise experience for under £2,000

TAKE THE MEDS

Spanish GP and cruise to Ibiza on 11-night adventure from just £2,149pp

Week-long sailings start and finish in La Romana, in the Dominican Republic, calling at the nearby nature reserve of Isla Catalina, the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan and the US Virgin Islands of St Thomas and St Croix. 

Now I’ve been lucky enough to visit the Caribbean a few times before, but I was still surprised by how green these islands were.  

And while this itinerary gave me plenty of opportunity to sunbathe on white-sand beaches and sample local rum (I recommend Ron del Barrilito), I was still able to go hiking in the rainforest and kayak through beautiful coves. 

Staying active is something I would definitely recommend on a Marella cruise — not just because you’ll miss out on amazing experiences if you don’t, but because you’ll need to burn off all the extra calories you’re bound to consume on board. 

With nine restaurants and seven bars spread over 11 decks, you certainly won’t go hungry or thirsty — especially as Marella cruises are all-inclusive as standard.  

This means your flights, cabin, transfers to and from the ship, drinks, food and entertainment are all included in the price. 

Even your bags go straight from your home airport to your cabin door so you don’t have to worry about collecting them from a carousel or lugging them around. 

Compared to other cruise ships, Marella Discovery is quite small, accommodating up to 1,800 passengers.  

It’s really set up for British tourists, though, with Yorkshire Tea on tap and dishes such as steak and ale pie readily available in the excellent Islands buffet. 

Entertainment-wise, passengers can find their way out of an escape room, play a round of mini-golf or enjoy a musical afternoon tea. Plus there are West End-style shows, quizzes and gameshows galore. 

For better-quality booze and speciality ­coffees, you can upgrade to a Premium All Inclusive package, while speciality restaurants, including the Surf & Turf Steakhouse and Sushi Bar, come at an extra charge. 

But be sure to leave room for some traditional Caribbean delicacies when you leave the ship. At Café Manolin, in San Juan, I joined locals queuing to tuck into giant plates of mofongo, a much-loved Puerto Rican dish of fried green plantain stuffed with meat or veggies. 

Coffee is also big business here — and almost as popular as rapper Bad Bunny, who hails from the island.  

Many coffee plantations welcome visitors to sample their wares but I got my caffeine fix at Hacienda Jacana, in the mountainous region of Adjuntas, where owner Jonathan and his ex-cop father proudly showed off their farm while explaining details of the coffee-making process. 

I was buzzing after a few cups of their delicious Latitude 18° coffee — but it couldn’t possibly compare to the buzz I got in St Thomas after snorkelling with a group of green turtles in the crystal-clear water of Magens Bay. 

Granted, I had to keep reminding myself that I wouldn’t die if I tried to breathe ­normally underwater, but I forgot all about breathing when a metre-long turtle paddled right past my face. Just wow. 

As an animal lover, and a keen traveller missing my two dogs back home, I was also thrilled to stumble across the Ruff Night — Hair Of The Dog Bar in St Croix (pronounced Croy), just steps from where Marella Discovery docked in Frederiksted.

The lively bar, in the courtyard of the Victoria House Inn, is run by volunteers from the Ruff Start STX animal charity who love nothing more than mixing super-strong cocktails and bringing in puppies for punters to cuddle.  

And if that’s not reason enough to visit, all money raised from the bar goes directly to local dogs in need, so go armed with plenty of cash in your pocket! 

I’d certainly worked up a thirst after a morning kayaking in the nearby Salt River Bay, and I enjoyed getting back to nature there almost as much as I did at El Yunque National Forest — the jewel in the crown of Puerto Rico. 

The 28,000-acre site is the only tropical rainforest in the US and it has more than 100 miles of walking trails just waiting to be explored. With enormous trees providing canopies of greenery and exotic birds and frogs creating a cacophony of noise, it was just how I imagined a rainforest to be. 

While mosquitoes are rife here after dark, I managed to avoid being savaged by the pesky wee beasties during the daytime. 

One thing was for sure, though — I had definitely been bitten by the Caribbean cruise bug.