BY: Michael Kandel
A tea party took place in Washington, DC this morning but not a drop was drunk. This particular tea party offered political rhetoric in support of the American and against that of current governmental structure in place of the tasty mixture of specialized leaves and water. Those in attendance absorbed all they could, as they stood shoulder-to-shoulder stretching for just about a mile from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to the World War II memorial. Their treat, heeding the words of Tea Party leaders such as Fox News personality Glenn Beck and ex-Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin.
For those of you unfamiliar with this political phenomenon popping up in regions throughout the United States, the Tea Party is a growing group of individuals whos first platform consisted of protesting taxation and big government. As time went on, and events such as the one this morning are held, the mission of the Tea Party has changed and continues to develop and grow from what was once a single issue mission, to preaching a make-shift, insufficiently organized agenda of a number of anti-government pro-individualized citizens issues. Leading the schema are topics such as the Health Care Reform Bill, lack of personal representation in government, and unemployment catalyzed by a poor economy.
You’re more likely to find a hamburger in the hands of a vegan than you are a Democrat in a mass of Tea Partiers. Tea Partiers are a collection of conservative Republicans and Independents on a mission to realign the direction of progression of the United States government. Recent polls indicate that 92 percent of Tea Partiers view the United States government headed in the wrong direction (CBS News). Tea Partiers are generally middle-class Americans from Evangelical, Protestant, and Catholic back-grounds who support the NRA, smaller government, and job creation while protesting gay marriage, abortion, and higher taxes. Additionally a large percentage of the movement is anti-Obama, preaching that he is functioning as president on a platform of Socialism, that his political affiliation is that of a Communist rather than a Democrat and advocate for his replacement by a “true leader” such as Sarah Palin.
Tea Partiers adopted their name from an exercise carried out by colonists on December 16, 1773 in the northern British colony of Boston, Massachusetts. A group of colonists, revolutionaries in their own time, boarded British ships, and tossed payloads of tea into Boston Harbor, effectively destroying it, in protest of the Tea Act, a stifling taxation on tea. The event was in reaction to a rejection by Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson to heed the demands of the citizens of the colony to return the tea to England. He had thought those in protest would concede; they acted instead. The events of the revolutionary war seemingly started there, at the Boston Tea Party, continually escalating until exploding into conflict on Lexington Common on April 19, 1775.
The country is hardly staring down the barrel of a loaded gun, and it is hard to say whether the Tea Party is a thing of the future rather than a thing of the now, but time will tell. What can be for sure is that the potentially tens of thousands of people who gathered this morning on the mall have finally found political representation that they can believe in and whom they are comfortable with in a country where they felt unrepresented and uncomfortable. For Tea Partiers, this morning’s rally was an outright success met by little resistance, even though the location and date of this event fell on the same day and location of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.
This morning’s event is not the first of its kind as organized tea party protests have been occurring for at least the last two years and some would say even longer than that. What is true is that the Tea Party has a face, sufficiently influential leaders, and is slowly placing political attachés in various seats of government beginning with Polk County Commissioner Randy Wilkinson and Dean Murray of the New York State Assembly. The House of Representatives has also moved forward with allowing the establishment of a Tea Party caucus.
Tea Partiers are scheduled to March on Washington, DC yet again just weeks from now. They will gather in Washington to descend on the mall on September 12 rallying at the steps of the United States Capitol with the intent of protesting big government and supporting lower taxes.
Whether the Tea Party has a certain future cannot yet be determined, but they are certainly making a name for themselves in history.
View photos: Rally set
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