Who Owns the ‘Tea Party’ Movement?
The short answer is, nobody does.
The tea party movement is a true grassroots effort comprised of a wide cross-section of our nation’s citizens. We are not recognizable by gender, age, race, creed, color, income level, or political or religious affiliation.
We are, however, all completely FED UP with both parties and our government in general.
Congressional DISAPPROVAL numbers are at an all-time LOW of 63%. Key players such as Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have ratings in the below-30% area…as does the current Congress. The president’s ratings are falling like a rock, especially if you actually ask about policy.
But I digress. Back to the history of the tea party, we note that the very first one was held by Congressman Ron Paul (R – Texas) supporters December 16, 2007 for calling attention to a “money bomb.” People dumped boxes labeled “taxes, war, big government” into the Boston harbor. Similar events took place around the country.
A more organized protest happened on July 12, 2008 when 10,000 Ron Paul supporters descended upon DC at the West Side of Capitol Hill for a “Revolution March”. The main theme of the March and Rally was Dr. Ron Paul’s message of Peace, Prosperity, and Freedom through adherence to the Constitution. The Keynote Speaker and Guest of Honor was Dr. Paul himself. Later both of these were known as the resurgence of the American “tea party” or the “re-teaparty”.
In February of 2009, a CNBC financial talking head named Rick Santelli burst forth with his famous rant in reaction to the mortgage crash. The traders on the floor of the CME Group joined him in expressing their outrage over the notion they may have to pay their neighbor’s mortgage, particularly if they bought far more house than they could actually afford. “President Obama, are you listening?” he shouted into the camera to the amused interviewers. He then said he would even start organizing a tea party to happen in July at Lake Michigan because what we are doing now was making our founding fathers “roll over in their graves”.
Later, many “912” groups formed after an idea proposed by Glenn Beck. And thus, we are a happy conglomeration of all of these elements.
Because by now, Americans were beginning to realize that neither party was serving their interests and our country was going down the tubes fast. And thus, the movement was born. Conservatives, some who’d never been politically active before, took to the streets. Progressives and leftists at first thought it was just a tiny minority, but then the numbers grew. It became apparent that this was no small phenomenon as proven by the 1.7M who descended upon DC on September 12, 2009, many carrying historical yellow Gadsden flags bearing the words “Don’t Tread on Me”.
As for the Tea Party Patriots and the Tea Party Express two groups who have been in the news lately for internal bickering, these folks have little to do with what goes on at the state level. Despite attempts to ‘organize’ us by region, our NH group continues to take no money, direction, or organization, or anything else from any of these groups. We consist of our own grassroots base, made up of NH watchdog and liberty groups whose members are longtime activists. We have no leader. Each person is a committee of one, a leader unto him or herself. We attend rallies under our own steam. We do not print their signs, give out free t-shirts, provide lunches or rides, or pay an hourly wage. (Unlike those clamoring for government health care who are heavily subsidized by wealthy socialists like George Soros, etc)
We welcome everyone to the movement. You don’t have to join anything or pay dues. There are no requirements. We will strive to educate, inform, and motivate you to take action.
After all, our country’s future, and our freedom, is at stake.
Update: And in the totally fake department, Common Dreams has a totally false story of the origins of tea party here. Rick Santelli was just commenting on what was already done in 2007 and 2008, and FreedomWorks was never heard of or from by most of us. They have never organized anything. It’s amazing how these progressive nutroots can get things so wrong. And yes we ARE anti-corporate, (FedRes) more than ever now. We will continue to call out totally fake stories such as this one, when we see them.