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History of the Tea Party The term “tea party” has long been associated with the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Patriots disguised as Native Americans tossed an entire cargo of tea into Boston Harbor to protest onerous taxes imposed by the British government. Several events of national prominence took place in early 2009, which developed into the modern-day Tea Party movement. On January 19, 2009 Graham Makohoniun, a stock trader, challenged people to mail tea bags to United States Senators and Representatives in protest of the mortgage bailout. A Seattle housewife and blogger, Keli Carender, blasted the airwaves with her plea to send tea bags to the White House as a protest to President Obama’s $750 billion stimulus package. On February 19, CNBC’s Rick Santelli called for another “tea party” from the floor of Chicago’s Mercantile Exchange. He encouraged people to send tea bags to Congress and Senate members to protest the bailout for mortgages. His speech became an instant success. The idea of the Tea Party became a grass-roots movement that quickly spread across the country. The energy that this organization has displayed has been a phenomenon of our time. What is the Tea Party? The purpose of the Tea Party is to restore honor, integrity, and values to our nation’s government. Most Tea Parties have a common theme to motivate, organize, mobilize, and educate citizens into activism to preserve the principles set forth in the Constitution for the United States of America. All Tea Party members oppose any form of a Socialist government and reject the concept of redistribution of wealth. These are the three core Tea Party values:
Other areas of concern are preserving Second Amendment rights, maintaining a strong military, following immigration guidelines set forth in the Constitution, repealing the health care bill, preventing Cap and Trade legislation, ending pork barrel projects, and protecting all of our freedoms. A very important aspect of all Tea Party groups is to publish the platforms and voting records of candidates running for national offices. Educating the public in order for them to make better choices is a key element to restoring integrity to our government. Tea Parties are made up of like-minded individuals from all races, ages, and socio-economic groups. They are Democrats, Republicans, Independents and Libertarians. Even though it is commonly thought and publicized, the Tea Party IS NOT an affiliate of the Republican Party.
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