No, the tea-party movement isn't the same as the Perot movement

Tea party activists are not only wealthier than the overall population but also wealthier than Perot voters were. More than half of the tea party activists have incomes of $50,000 or more, compared with just 44 percent of the overall population. Perot voters looked almost identical to the population at large in terms of income.

The biggest and most important difference, however, is the ideological makeup of the two groups. Despite the same strong anti-government sentiment and focus on the federal budget deficit as the tea party activists of today, the Perot voters were far less conservative.

In 1992, 53 percent of those who backed Perot for president described themselves as moderate, with 27 percent calling themselves conservative and 20 percent liberal, according to the exit polls. Among tea party activists, the Post poll and the CBS-New York Times poll found that nearly three-quarters called themselves conservative. David Winston, a Republican pollster, pegged the group’s makeup as 65 percent conservative, 26 percent moderate.