Tea Party Movement The Tea Party movement is a populist[1] United States protest movement. The movement emerged in 2009 through an ongoing series of Tea Party protests.[2][3][4][5] The protests are partially in response to the 2009 stimulus package[6][7] as well as the 2008 bailouts.[8] In 2010 The Economist described the movement as "America's most vibrant political force."[9] In general, the Tea Party movement supports constitutionally limited government, fiscal responsibility and free markets[10][11][12]. More specifically, the movement is anti-stimulus[13], anti-deficit[14] and anti-bailout[15][16]. Some demonstrators have also opposed federal support for the ailing automobile industry.[2] The name "Tea Party" is a reference to the historic Boston Tea Party of 1773, a protest by American colonists against taxation by the British government when the colonists had no representation in the British Parliament. The Boston Tea Party pre-dated and laid the groundwork for the American Revolutionary War.[17] Tea Party protests have sought to evoke similar images, slogans and themes to this iconic period in American history.[18][19][20] The name may also refer to the often-used acronym, "TEA Party," a play on a party slogan: "Taxed Enough Already." Background A Tea Party protester holds a sign saying "Remember: Dissent is Patriotic" at a Nashville Tea Party on February 27, 2009. The theme of the Boston Tea Party, an iconic event of American history, has long been used by anti-tax protesters with libertarian and conservative viewpoints.[22][23][24] It was part of Tax Day protests held throughout the 1990s and earlier.[25][26][27][28] The libertarian theme of the "tea party" protest was previously used by Republican Congressman Ron Paul and his supporters as a fundraising event during the primaries of the 2008 presidential campaign to emphasize Paul's fiscal conservatism, which they later claimed laid the groundwork for the modern-day Tea Party movement.[29][30][31][32] On January 19, someone on FedUpUSA posted an invitation "to a Commemorative Tea Party" protest in Boston on February 1.[33] On February 11, talk radio host and Fox Business Network personality Dave Ramsey appeared on Fox and Friends, waving tea bags and saying, "It's time for a Tea Party."[34] But the dominant theme seen at some of the earliest anti-stimulus protests was "pork" rather than tea.[35] The term "porkulus" was coined by radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh on his January 27, 2009, broadcast[36] in reference to both the 2009 "stimulus" bill, which was just introduced to the House of Representatives the day before, as well as to pork barrel spending and earmarks[37]. This proved very popular with conservative politicians and commentators[38], who began to unify in opposition against stimulus spending after the 2008 General Election. Early local protest events According to FreedomWorks state and federal campaigns director Brendan Steinhauser[39][40], activist Mary Rakovich[41] was the organizer of a February 10, 2009 protest in Fort Myers, Florida, calling it the "first protest of President Obama's administration that we know of. It was the first protest of what became the tea party movement."[42] New York Times journalist Kate Zernike reported that leaders within the Tea Party credit Seattle blogger and conservative activist Keli Carender with organizing the first Tea Party in February of 2009, although the term "Tea Party" was not used.[43] Other articles, written by Chris Good of The Atlantic[44] and NPR’s Martin Kaste[45], credit Carender as "one of the first" Tea Party organizers and state that she “organized some of the earliest Tea Party-style protests”. Carender first organized what she called a "Porkulus Protest" in Seattle on Presidents Day, February 16, the day before President Obama signed the stimulus bill into law[46]. Carender said she did it without support from outside groups or city officials. "I just got fed up and planned it." Carender said 120 people participated. "Which is amazing for the bluest of blue cities I live in, and on only four days [sic] notice!! [sic] This was due to me spending the entire four days calling and emailing every person, think tank, policy center, university professors (that were sympathetic), etc. in town, and not stopping until the day came."[47] [48] Carender also contacted conservative author and Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin, and asked her to publicize the rally on her blog.[49] Carender then held a second protest on February 27, 2009, reporting "We more than doubled our attendance at this one."[43]. On Tax Day, six weeks later, 1,200 people gathered for a Tea Party protest.[50] First national Tea Party protests On February 19, 2009,[38] in a broadcast from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CNBC Business News editor Rick Santelli criticized the government plan to refinance mortgages, which had just been announced the day before. He said that those plans were "promoting bad behavior"[51] by "subsidizing losers' mortgages". He suggested holding a tea party for traders to gather and dump the derivatives in the Chicago river on July 1. [52] [53][54] A number of the derivative traders around him cheered on his proposal, to the apparent amusement of the hosts in the studio. Video of Santelli's 'rant' went viral after it received a "red siren" headline on the news aggregation website, Drudge Report.[55] In response to Santelli, websites such as ChicagoTeaParty.com (registered in August 2008 by Chicago radio producer Zack Christenson) were live within twelve hours.[19] About 10 hours after Santelli's remarks, reTeaParty.com was bought to coordinate Tea Parties scheduled for July 4 and, as of March 4, was reported to be receiving 11,000 visitors a day.[19] According to The New Yorker writer Ben McGrath[38] and New York Times reporter Kate Zernike[43], this is where the movement was first inspired to coalesce under the collective banner of "Tea Party." By the next day, guests on Fox News had already begun to mention this new "Tea Party." [56] As reported by The Huffington Post, a Facebook page was developed on February 20 calling for Tea Party protests across the country.[57] Soon, the "Nationwide Chicago Tea Party" protest was coordinated across over 40 different cities for February 27, 2009, thus establishing the first national modern Tea Party protest.[58][59] Commentaries on the movement Dan Gerstein, a former Democratic Party political advisor, argued in Forbes that the protests could have tapped into real feelings of disillusionment by American moderates but the protesters had too many incoherent messages being put forth.[60] Bridgett Wagner of The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has compared the protests to the tax revolts of the 1970s and 1980s, which included the successful Proposition 13 in California that capped property taxes.[61] Jeremi Suri, a history professor at the University of Wisconsin, viewed them as "not dissimilar from what we had in 2003 with the anti-war protests, where a lot of people were uncomfortable with the war, but also uncomfortable with the anti-war position, recognizing there are terrorists out there."[62] Ned Ryun, President of American Majority, an organization which offers training for many Tea Party activists, believes this movement is not about political parties stating, "It's very much anti-establishment at both parties....They don't care about party labels." He has also said that "I think we're getting to the point where you can truly say we're entering a post-party era. They aren't going to be necessarily wed to a certain party -- they want to see leadership that reflects their values first.....They don't care what party you're in; they just want to know if you reflect their values -- limited government, fixing the economy."[63] An article by Thomas B. Edsall in The New Republic concludes that the findings of Robert D. Putnam that diversity has resulted in a withdrawal of many from varied community life provides valuable insight into the Tea Party movement's "explosive growth".[64] Political historian Rick Perlstein has observed that "the story they're telling is that somehow the authentic, real America is being polluted."[65] Composition of the movement According to a New York Times/CBS poll, 18 percent of Americans identify themselves as Tea Party supporters. Tea Party supporters tend to be "white, male, married and older than 45." In general, they are "wealthier and more well-educated" than the general public, and hold conservative views on a range of issues. Although most are registered Republican, they tend to be more conservative than Republicans at large. [66] Political correspondent Liz Sidoti of the Associated Press, the Tea Party movement "an ideological mix of libertarianism and conservativism with the common denominator being lower spending and smaller government."[67] The general consensus within the Tea Party is that "big" government, along with big spending, is to be avoided.[67] The Tea Party movement is still without formal organization. Though several groups have emerged to try to capture the agenda, a majority agree on principles without formally aligning themselves with one or the other. The groups that have emerged to date each have slightly different approaches to their advocacy, and include[68]: * The Tea Party Patriots are a national organization that claims to have over 1000 local chapters, run with the help of Freedomworks, a conservative nonprofit led by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey.[69][70][71][72][73] * The Tea Party Express is a national bus tour run by Our Country Deserves Better PAC, a conservative Political Action Committee created by Sacramento-based GOP consulting firm Russo, Marsh, and Associates.[71][74][75][76] * Tea Party Nation held a National Convention February 4–6, 2010. The event featured Sarah Palin as keynote speaker, but was criticized for charging $549 per ticket,[77][78][79][80] as well as the fact that Palin was apparently paid $100,000 USD for her appearance.[81] In the face of criticism by Tea Party activists, Palin has said she plans to donate the fee to unspecified conservative causes.[82] Former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo at the Tea Party convention in Nashville stated to applause, "People who could not even spell the word 'vote' or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House..his name is Barack Hussein Obama."[83] * A new National Tea Party Federation was formed on April 8, 2010, by several of the major players in the Tea Party movement to help spread its message and to respond to critics with a quick, unified response. "It took us 72 hours to respond to John Lewis," Skoda said, referring to the congressman who said a racial epithet was used at a Tea Party rally the previous month.[84] The Tea Party movement has also attracted some followers of fringe organizations such as the LaRouche Movement, the white separatist Council of Conservative Citizens, and the John Birch Society.[85] Spotting a fringe protester with an anti-Obama sign at a Washington rally, Diana Reimer, a Philadelphia housewife who is now the National Coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, told the New York Times, "That's what gives us a bad name."[86][87] In a February 19, 2010, column in the Wall Street Journal, Republican strategist Karl Rove suggested that, to improve its effect on policy, the Tea Party movement dissociate itself from the militia movement, 'birthers', 9/11 deniers, cranks and conspiracy nuts