In 1773, indignant colonists staged one of the most famous scenes in early American history: the Boston Tea Party. This event, which involved the dumping of imported British tea into the Boston Harbor, was sparked by fury over unfair laws put into place by the ever-distant British government over the colonists. A key point in the pre-American Revolution era, the Boston Tea Party lived in infamy well past the time of the actual event, into history books and Americans’ minds for centuries.
Though the Boston Tea Party was actually a fight against imported goods and the taxes associated with those (which, incidentally, were lowered, causing concerned colonists to react), it’s hard to deny the involvement of taxes in early American history. These taxes led to the famous motto, “No taxation without representation”, and rightly so. The colonists, official British citizens, had no one in the British Parliament representing them and conveying their needs. Instead, the slightly offed British government tried to rein in their seemingly rebellious brethren through inordinate taxes and other laws. Rightly so, the colonists rebelled, and voila, we have the United States of America.
For eight long, difficult years, progressives, minorities, pacifists, feminists, and liberals watched as the Bush Administration invaded and destroyed basic human rights. From the ridiculousness and racism involved in No Child Left Behind to the complete disregard to rights of privacy in The Patriot Act, the Bush administration did its best to take inordinate control of the government, all the while further segregating minorities and widening the gap between the rich and the poor. Bush and his administration finally vacated the White House, leaving behind an economy in shambles and a society essentially pillaged by a fascist government.
No one can deny that there was a lot of work to do when Barack Obama took office in 2009. With an overwhelming Democrat majority in Congress, the Obama administration went about trying to solve the plethora of problems left behind by an inept presidency. With a 52% majority of the vote (one of the most overwhelming majorities since JFK), Obama set out to do what he promised: change America.
A small, violent group of radical rightists were not pleased with the way Obama was trying to change America – led by extremists like Glenn Beck (who has publicly stated his dislike of 9/11 families(1) and called Obama a racist (2), among other radical statements) and Sarah Palin (one of the most undeserving names in national media today, Palin has publicly condoned violence towards liberal congressmen(3)), these hateful radicals united behind their self-sufficient causes and deemed themselves the “Tea Party”. It’s hard to see what these extremists are angry about; the fact that Obama’s ‘change’ was going to aid the poor and desolate, or that it would shorten the gap between the rich and the poor? Whatever their causes, the Tea Party was born, irrational, violent, and angry.
On their official website(4), the Tea Party discusses their main objectives: the “Core Principles” of “Fiscal Responsibility”, “Limited Government”, and “Free Market”. Qualities of a legitimate political ideology at first glance, no doubt. However, the radicalism with which the Tea Party takes these ‘principles’ is both frightening and almost humorous. For instance, Tea Party “Patriot” Rand Paul, in the running for a Kentucky Senate seat, thinks that “Limited Government” means the Civil Rights Act of 1964, making it illegal to discriminate against minorities, is too much. Paul also thinks that, contrary to the principle of “Limited Government”, Obama himself was “too hard” on BP following the catastrophic oil spill in April of 2010.
Tea Party rallies have happened in almost every major city in the United States. Usually consisting of white, middle-to-upper class, older men and women, one of the “Patriots” favorite things to do is create radical, offensive, and downright untrue signs attacking Obama, Democratic Congressmen, or just liberal ideology in general. In the Tea Party rally that took place in Saint Louis on September 12th, signs equating Obama to Hitler were seen, as well as signs begging for Americans to “Re-defeat Communism”. These rallies often consist of a couple hundred men and women who, aside from having little to no knowledge of what is actually happening in our government, have goals of spreading fear. These “Patriots” act much like their idol, Glenn Beck, does on his nationally syndicated lie of a radio show and joke of a television program.
Despite slight success so far in the election season, experts have expressed a lack of hope for the Tea Party. So far removed even from the mainstream GOP, candidates in the Tea Party, like Sharron Angle in Nevada and Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, could actually prove more beneficial for the Democrats in Congress than one would expect. For instance, since the nomination of Tea Partier Christine O’Donnell to the Delware Republican nomination, two non-partisan political reports, Rotherburg and Cook, have switched their view of the end result from Republican to Democrat(5). Sharron Angle and Harry Reid are neck-and-neck in Nevada, but recent polls have shown that Angle’s radical statements regarding economics and social policy are pushing her farther and farther back(5). The separatist dialogue that Palin, Beck, and their radical Tea Party counterparts have utilized over the past couple months has dissuaded even legitimate Republicans from their candidates – this, in turn, will lead to a strong Democratic showing come November.
Those who participated in the Boston Tea Party in 1773 would be disgusted by the actions of today’s Tea Party. The Bostonians were looking for independence from a foreign power so that they could create their own, united, dynamic country. Today’s Tea Party is about fear-mongering and lying, about tearing apart a country and a government that was legitimately elected and represents all citizens and their ideals. The Tea Party is anything but dynamic – rather, it is one-minded and a horrible representation of true Republican values. Those far-right extremists who identify with the Tea Party need to get off of their high horses and recognize the facts: they are falling farther and farther out of touch with the general American public, and even their conservative counterparts disagree with them on many issues. They need to understand the ideas of compromise and help convert the Party of No back into something at least remotely bipartisan. The Tea Party is not patriotic, it is not virtuous, it is not good. The Tea Party is a violent, anti-American, hellishly partisan movement, geared towards destroying our beautiful country. But, above all of that, the Tea Party is merely a trend. A trend that, while vocal right now, will eventually die.
Let’s pray it dies soon.
1) “[Y]ou know it took me about a year to start hating the 9-11 victims’ families? Took me about a year” http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200509090003
2) “This president, I think, has exposed himself as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture,” http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0709/Foxs_Beck_Obama_is_a_racist.html
3) Map (notice the crosshairs on the map), See Also: www.examiner.com/city-buzz-in-san-diego/sarah-palin-suggests-violence-on-twitter-facebook – “Don’t Retreat, Instead – RELOAD!”
5) http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/09/15/republicans.senate/index.html?iref=allsearch
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