Tea Party Movement

The Tea Party Movement (an acronym for Taxed Enough Already) is an ongoing, nationwide movement, locally organized with loose national coordination, of citizens rising up in protest of the generational theft of public tax monies, the tremendous extensions of United States Federal debt and authority, the apparent restructuring of the Federal government with the intent to contravene the system of checks and balances for which the United States Constitution provides, and the attempt, which some movement leaders say has been in progress for several decades, to sacrifice liberty for permanent dependency.

Beginnings

The Tea Party movement began on February 19, 2009, when Mr. Rick Santelli, an on-the-air editor and analyst for CNBC Business News, made this statement on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade:

“

We're thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July! All you capitalists who live near Lake Michigan, I'm going to start organizing!"

”

At issue was the Obama Administration's program for offering to repay many home mortgages that were nearly in default at the time, and also the tremendous "economic stimulus" package, which Santelli and others viewed as an excuse for dispensing "pork", i.e. agreed-upon graft. Mr. Santelli was making an obvious reference to the Boston Tea Party in 1773. To underscore his point, Mr. Santelli cited Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and other members of the "Founding Fathers" who, he said, must be "rolling over in their graves" at the spectacle that the Presidency of Barack Hussein Obama is now creating.

These statements became rapidly known as the "Shout Heard 'Round the World," and Mr. Santelli would be called upon repeatedly to clarify his statement. But, though Rick Santelli did not participate further in organizing any such event as he proposed, many others did. "Tea Party Organizations" hastily assembled and planned multiple spontaneous events that took place on April 15, 2009—the deadline for the filing of individual income tax returns. These were the Tax Day Tea Parties, at least one of which was held in each of the fifty States within the United States.

Schedule

Tax Day

Main Article: Tax Day Tea Party

As mentioned, the Tax Day Tea Parties were the first such events. The many organizations that formed in the wake of Rick Santelli's impromptu announcement made little or no effort to coordinate their planning, beyond all choosing April 15 as their target protest date, on account of its obvious association with the payment of taxes.

The event organizers made every effort to ensure the continuation of their movement, by registering attendees for mailing lists and also offering merchandise for sale. They made no effort to exclude any particular participants on account of race, color, creed, or political party affiliation. All participants expressed a shared outrage at the level of taxation and at the contempt that they felt that not only the President but also most members of Congress, regardless of political party, appeared to be displaying for the Constitution.

Independence Day

These same organizations decided to repeat their performance on Independence Day (July 4, 2009). Even more persons attended; the largest such rally was held on the grounds of the Southfork Ranch (scene of the television series Dallas), in Plano, Texas, which drew 37,000 attendees. The themes that organizers and participants sounded at these events were much the same as were those at the Tax Day events: advocacy of limited government, decrying of high levels of taxation, and refusal to countenance plans for socialism and especially socialized medicine.

Labor Day

Several organizations also organized Tea Parties on Labor Day, once again sounding the same limited-government, low-tax, and anti-socialistic themes. Those organizations that did not plan such events often referred people to those that did.

September 12 March on Washington

Main Article: September 12 March on Washington

By far the largest single event thus far has been the September 12 March on Washington, DC. This was an event organized initially by the FreedomWorks Foundation, but nearly all Tea Party organizations decided to participate in this event, primarily by chartering buses and registering people for transportation to Washington. FreedomWorks estimates that 600,000 to 800,000 persons attended, and base that estimate on the number of persons who responded when their Master of Ceremonies asked all attendees within earshot to send the text message "Freedom" to a designated five-digit telephone number. However, the London Daily Mail estimates attendance at as many as a million persons, on the basis of eyewitness accounts and aerial-photographic evidence. Estimates of total attendance are difficult to obtain, primarily because the size of the crowd far exceeded the estimates by the event planners, with the result that many attendees were never able to get within earshot of the stage or even the sound system, and the temporary sanitary facilities were hopelessly jammed, with fifty persons standing in line to use each portable "necessary."

Themes

The Tea Party Movement began with a protest against two aspects of current public policy:

1. Excessive taxation
2. Special privilege

Rick Santelli specifically cited the mortgage bailout policies of early 2009 as a prize example of the government doing special favors for certain classes of voters, in return for their continued support, and also of the "moral hazard" in which such policies inevitably place anyone who "buys on time," i.e., buys any sort of asset, from a home appliance to a parcel of real estate, using borrowed money.

As the movement has progressed, it has begun to sound broader themes, which one may best summarize as:

1. Self-responsibility
2. Self-autonomy
3. Limited government
4. A requirement that government live within its own means, just as individuals must live within theirs
5. Capitalism
6. Freedom of all varieties of production and trade
7. Respect for the United States Constitution

Characteristics

Autonomy of local organizers

Most organization of Tea Parties and similar events is local. Typical of the movement is the Morristown Tea Party Organization (Morristown, New Jersey), which has a five-member board of trustees and about fifty dedicated volunteers who handle operations, communication, and logistics without assistance or direction from any regional or other organization. State-wide co-ordinating bodies do exist (for example, New Jersey Tea Parties United), but local organizations are responsible for most of their activities, fund-raising, and legal functioning. In this regard, the Tea Party Movement is similar to the Independent Baptist Fellowship of North America, which never seeks to dictate to individual churches how they must conduct their affairs.

Individual comportment and deportment

Event participants, and especially event planners, are urged to comport themselves in a manner respectful of the rights and feelings of others. Organizational leaders consciously endeavor to distinguish their movement from many liberal protest movements, which often characterize themselves by rude behavior, vandalism, and even physical assaults against their opponents. Any person who persistently suggests that Tea Party Movement participants engage in activities remotely similar to this may usually consider themselves excluded, and in some cases organizers have summoned law-enforcment authorities to deal with provocative behavior by attendees at planning and other meetings.

Symbols

200px

By far the most prominent symbol at Tea Parties today is the Gadsden Rattlesnake Flag The Come And Take It Flag has also appeared, most notably at the September 12 March on Washington.

Aside from this, Tea Party participants almost always use home-made and home-decorated signs and other artifacts, in sharp contrast to the uniform, professionally printed signs carried at liberal demonstrations. Some of the signs that have been seen and photographed at these events have provoked cries of outrage from Tea Party Movement opponents, alleging bad taste, e.g. a picture of Barack Obama with the square mustache affected by Adolf Hitler and bearing the caption "I've Changed," and a sign bearing the message "Bury ObamaCare with Kennedy." But most of the signs bear lampoons of the most highly publicized Obama Administration policies, from "Czars" to socialized medicine. Nor is Barack Obama the only target of criticism; the Mainstream Media also receive a share of criticism, both for their failings in their coverage of the Tea Party Movement and what most participants regard as a collective decision by Mainstream Media organs to function as de facto government and/or Democratic Party organs rather than the objective and disinterested commentators on events that they pretend to be.

News coverage

Mainstream media

Coverage by the Mainstream Media of the Tea Party events has been noticeably lacking, both in quantity and in quality. The three traditional broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) have attempted repeatedly to discredit these events as corporate-sponsored or sponsored by the Republican Party and other conservative or reactionary groups. Furthermore, several news anchors working for CNN and MSNBC coined the phrase "tea-baggers," a term that has an off-color connotation, to refer to Tea Party Movement leaders and participants.

In fact, Tea Party organizers are not affiliated with the Republican Party, nor do they accept any funding or especially any advice, let alone orders, from the Republican Party, the United States Chamber of Commerce, or any industry trade association or similar group.

Alternative media

By far the most industrious news organ that has covered the Tea Party Movement since its inception has not been CNBC Business News, but Fox News Channel, and especially its commentators Neil Cavuto and Glenn Beck. As the movement has progressed, participants have returned the favor by singling out Fox News Channel as one of the few outlets that they can trust.