Can someone explain to me what the Tea Party movement actually is

Being a Brit I tend to stay away from the US politics discussions as I don't have much to contribute, but I see the phrases Tea Part movement bought up so many times lately that I really feel I should know more about it.

I've read the wiki page but that didn't clarify it much for me.

Can anyone give me a nice simple concise explanation of who they are, what their goals are etc.as I can't make head nor tail of it.

yea..good question..

I live here in America and i don't get it either...

sounds like a stupid name for a political group anyway..

Originally posted by baddmove
yea..good question..

I live here in America and i don't get it either...

sounds like a stupid name for a political group anyway..

I'm pretty sure TEA = Taxed Enough Already.

Take it and with it from there.

Here's a great summery for everything you wanted to know about the group. Yes, the Tea Party is this bad lol.
reconstitution.us...

You have had the best possible ride anyone could ever have had. Because you were born after the “New Deal” had become a done deal, you enjoyed incredible opportunities. Thanks to the Fair Labor Standards Act, you didn’t have to work yourselves into the ground for a subpar wage. You could actually live on what you made. And thanks to widespread unionization, even if you were in a non-union shop, you still got taken care of better-because a good employee might have jumped to a union shop if he or she wasn’t treated well. Your parents, who suffered through both a horrible Depression and then a devastating war, did everything in their power to make sure that you never had to suffer what they had gone through. The post-WWII era saw American opportunity for everyone who was willing to work for the chance, including minorities and women in due time.

I can tell you what it was before it got infiltrated buy neocons and the rest
2ns line

I live in the US and read up on it the other day - seems the term is arrived from a historical occurance - something to do with tea

I'm more confused now then at the start of the thread especially after reading that letter

reply to post by davespanners


This video explains it pretty well.

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by davespanners


The Tea Partiers are Republicans forced to change their names because they war their last name out. Just like Blackwater had to change their name to Xe when they were exposed for the law ignoring mercinaries they were, Some Republicans decided to change their name to Tea Party for similiar reasons.

reply to post by Esoteric Teacher


Thank you

So are there any ideological differences at all between Republicans and the new group?

Great topic. I look forward to a variety of answers.
A third party geared toward government accountability that most believe to have been co-opted by the two major parties.
Note that the Tea Party is, apparently, comprised primarily of the descendants of the people christened rednecks and hillbillies in the British Isles still being called rednecks and hillbillies in America several hundred years later. The original definitions of the terms have been expanded from simply referring to some Protestants to including pro-labor and ignorance and racism.Poor white trash is another acceptable euphemism for this group.

If you can get past all the nonsense posts that do nothing more than whine and engage in childish insults and name-calling in the 500 tea party threads that already exist you'll find that the tea parties are a collective of Republicans, Democrats, Independents, etc., who all have different political ideologies but generally agree that government has gotten too large, that those in government don't listen to the voters, and that the laws they've been passing go beyond the scope of what the federal government is permitted to do per the Constitution. The details of how they think it should be fixed differ, but those are the things generally agreed on.

It is not just a group of Republicans who've changed their name. It's not a bunch of uneducated idiots. And it's not just a bunch of rich people hanging out and complaining. It's a grass roots movement with no single figure-head, though the posters on this site and the media would like you to think otherwise.

reply to post by davespanners


ideological differences? not many at all other than to be more covert and not get caught exposing themselves for what priorities and moralities they truly cherish and are proponents of. In some cases I see they have abandoned the ideologies once held in high regard by the Republican Party.

I remember Republican President Ronald Reagan's "Tear down this wall" speech at the Berlin Wall that separated Germany for decades. Yet what was good for the opposite side of the planet is not good for Americas' southern border with Mexico according to most Tea Party members I know of, they are not in favor of Illegal Immigration, support more laws against immigration, and want to use more tax dollars to enforce a security wall across the southern border with Mexico. At least their rhetoric seems to project this opinion.

They claim to clammering to the constitution, while remaining ignorant of the number of laws, what all the laws mean, and what all the current laws mean when held simultaneously in context with one another.

These are few reasons why I personally do not subscribe to the Tea Party diversionary tactics. That and their spokes people have proven repeatedly to me to be individuals who propagate misinformation and outright lies.

this is my educated opinion on the Tea Party based upon the information and experiences I have garnered about them.

hope this might help,
ET

reply to post by Jenna


So it's not a political party then more of a movement? can you vote for a "Tea Party candidate" ? or do they support people from different political parties?

I'm not encouraged when I see the media having their way with the members here.

The tea party was formed by those who are awakening, they realize that our government is a charade, the two party system is a fraud and that popular opinion is a highly controlled game.

These are former Republicans and Democrats, but mostly independents and libertarians. This is a ragtag group that does not have an official mission statement or organization... these are AMERICAN CITIZENS! Mostly they believe in Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and the like. This movement got it's start in 1776 at the Boston Tea Party when they said enough is enough to raises in taxes and sparked the American Revolution and was revived in 2007 when the grassroots supporters of Ron Paul's presidential campaign threw a tea party bash.

From there it took off spontaneously, and mostly it's been co opted by the media to confuse everyone about what the tea party really is. Don't listen to the media on anything they say about anything... especially the tea parties!!!

whew

In short, these are people... everyone kind of people... protesting Government. And rightfully so.

reply to post by davespanners

Because you are asking a political question, you are going to get biased answers, like essentially ALL of the above.
The T.E.A. party is not really a party, so much as it is a philosophy, or a mission. Naturally, whenever a movement becomes successful politically, it will be maligned, misrepresented, hijacked, etc, all done with the intention of neutralizing its affect.
This tactic has worked in the past so successfully that we have been stuck with the Republicans and the Democrats vs. the people for many years. As you can see by the comments, many people are happy with that reality.
The truth is, that with the internet, the T.E.A. Party may not go away anytime soon. The people that got it off the ground have not changed their ideology just because many neocon Republicans, with the help of the media, claim to be T.E.A. Party. Small, limited government and the resulting smaller, limited taxation that would result is the main goal. Not limiting masturbation or some other nonsense. When the ideals the T.E.A. Party stands for are not mentioned, but something personal about the candidate IS, that should tell you that it is politics as usual.
Ron Paul is the leader of the revolution. Republicans AND Democrats are fair game in this revolution.
Don't believe anything else unless you want to be neo-conned.

Edit: I see we have Sequoyah that is speaking the truth, so we do have some truth here.

The Tea Party is an organization created by the US Right Wing, and the Fox Fictional News Network, to give us the Illusion of a Third Party.

It is composed mainly of conservatives, many of whom hold racially biased beliefs (see photo of T.P. rally picketer)


But, it seems to have swayed a bit out of control, as we saw when Karl Rove threw a temper tantrum upon Tea Party candidate (and Witchcraft practitioner) Christine O'donnell winning Delaware's Republican Senate nomination.

reply to post by davespanners


The tea party is a movement of Republican voters and some other conservative leaning voters who were unsatisfied with the election outcome of 2008 and seek to restore Republican and/or conservative dominance back into congress. They seek to move the country further rightwing and through this they market their own candidates into the Republican party to push the country to their agenda.

It will be argued that the Tea parties are a grassroots independent movement, but I'll invite you to have a look at the political speakers and political candidates at these rallies, behind the funding, and decide for yourself.