December 16 is the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, a seminal event in the American revolution. It is also the birthday of the modern Tea Party movement, inaugurated in 2007 by Ron Paul and his disciples.
The Tea Party movement was spawned as a grass-roots, loosely affiliated, locally based agglomeration of Americans with a few shared beliefs, beginning with the basic tenet that government in America has grown too big and too intrusive. While many Tea Partiers are Republicans, a common theme is the distrust of all career elected politicians, from either side of the aisle. Along the way, the movement has swept up adherents with more diverse concerns, including illegal immigration, same-sex marriage, 2nd ammendment rights, and others.
Tea Party Basics
Tea Partiers are self-described Republicans, Independents, Libertarians, and even a few Democrats. There are no national leaders, though there are a few figureheads, especially since the November 2010 elections.
Regardless of other affiliations, Tea Partiers strive for a few common goals:
- Smaller government
- Lower taxes
- Fiscal responsibility, mostly manifested by reduced government debt and a balanced federal budget
- An originalist interpretation of the Constitution, especially in regard to personal freedoms.
Ron Paul and the Birth of the Tea Party
While the Tea Party came to the fore in the time since Barack Obama’s election, it originally was begun by Ron Paul, a libertarian Republican congressman from Texas. Ignored by his own party because of his libertarian views, Paul appealed to the grass roots voters for support in his bid for the US presidency.
On December 16, 2007, the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, Paul and his supporters marched from Boston City Hall to Faneuil Hall and held their own symbolic rebellion. With the help of a now-famous YouTube video entitled “Tea Party 07,” Paul called for his supporters to show their support by donating money to his cause. The result was the “money bomb,” in which Paul’s campaign raised $4.3 million dollars (mostly from internet contributions) in one day, a Republican record.
Spurned by the Republicans at their 2008 national convention in St. Paul, Paul held his own convention a few miles away that was attended by 10,000 supporters, demonstrating that his message was being heard.
While unsuccessful in his presidential bid, Paul’s positions were at the heart of Tea Party philosophy. He was against “extravagant” foreign policy, typified by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; he was in fact the only GOP candidate in the election of 2008 to call for immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. He decried deficit spending. He railed against the Homeland Security Act, warrantless searches, government wire-tapping, and the like, calling them blatant violations of Americans' constitutional rights. He called for lower taxes and less government meddling in the lives and businesses of citizens.
The 2009 Tea Party Protests
Barack Obama’s initial acts as President fomented a tidal wave of Tea Party activity. The Wallstreet bailouts, the TARP stimulus package, and especially the so-called Obamacare reform of the health care system spawned an explosion of Tea Party protests large and small across America.
The ailing economy, high unemployment, and perceived favoritism of government toward corporate America only served to inflame the emotions of the Tea Party nation, who already felt that their voices were not being heard in Washington. Many politicians, sensing a ground swell that they could ride, hopped aboard.
On February 19, 2009, in a now famous on-air outburst, Rick Santelli, Business News Editor for CNBC, raged against a government program to help home-owners who had been stuck with bad mortgages by their banks (and of course by their own bad judgment). He called for a Chicago Tea Party to dump derivatives into the Chicago River. Commentators and politicians from coast to coast picked up the theme and supported other gatherings. Throughout 2009, the pace of protest picked up.
Major national Tea Party rallies occurred in February, April, and September. Minor gatherings, directed at state governments, were common. Facebook pages and websites proliferated, all with some variation of “Tea Party” in their names. A dozen groups purporting to be the unifying, national voice of the Tea Party sprang up, usually fronted by one politician or another.
Dissatisfied with Obama and his supporters, the Tea Party aimed its sights at the midterm elections of 2010. Indeed, many Tea Party candidates found success in those elections, and quite a few ensconced Democrats were ousted from office, losing either to Tea Party candidates or Republicans sympathetic to Tea Party views.
Sarah Palin and the Tea Party
In a speech and video released on Sep 10, 2010, former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin attempted to align herself with the Tea Party and distance herself from the main GOP. The video, titled simply “Tea Party,” (and echoing Paul's earlier "Tea Party '07") contains footage of her speaking to a Tea Party gathering and espousing Tea Party ideas. She even manages to fold her pro-war position, which is antithetical to pure Tea Party tenets, into the message. She calls the Tea Party “the future of politics” in the US.
Since the November elections, Palin has made other gestures to establish herself within the Tea Party movement. She has called for Tea Party electees to unite with mainstream Republican members of Congress. Called on to replace the oft-criticized Michael Steele as head of the Republican National Committee, Palin demurred, presumedly to continue touring in support of her second book and to keep herself positioned for a possible presidential run in 2012.
Other Tea Party Luminaries
In addition to Sarah Palin, other Tea Party leaders have found their way into positions of power, thanks to the 2010 midterm elections. Among the most prominent are:
- Rand Paul. The son of Ron Paul and a Tea Party activist from the beginning, Paul was elected to the US Senate (R, Kentucky) in the 2010 elections. He has called for a bicameral Tea Party caucus in Congress.
- Marco Rubio. After forcing former governor Charlie Crist to run as an independent, Rubio (R, Florida) won a three-way election to the US Senate, with a campaign calling for lower property taxes and smaller government.
- Nikki Haley. With national endorsements from Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin, Tea Party candidtate Haley was elected governor of South Carolina.
The Future of the Tea Party
While the Tea Party achieved some success in the midterm elections of 2010, history shows that those gains could be transient. When Newt Gingrich's so-called Republican Revolution of '94 swept to control of both the House and Senate, they were later stymied by the realities of governing in Washington, and Bill Clinton was re-elected.
The Tea Party's original message has been somewhat co-opted and marginalized by all the tag-along causes that have attached themselves. While many Americans may be sympathetic to lower taxes and smaller government, problems arise when discussing immigration, abortion, the wars, health care, religion in schools, and other complicated issues. The Tea Party's future rests upon the legislative efforts of their electees, supported by a sustained unified voice of support from grass-roots adherents.