Q&A: A wave of anger that jolts both parties { TEA PARTIES }

Sacramento Bee ^ | 9/13/10 | Margaret Talev

[SmithL]

When the tea party movement arose in early 2009, it seemed more a sign of the times – a backlash to the recession and President Barack Obama's election – than a lasting force.

The movement has outlived many expectations. Thousands of tea party groups have sprung up across the country, and tea party activists are having a significant impact on shaping Republican primaries.

Here's a primer on the tea party movement.

Is the tea party a political party?

No. The name plays on the 1773 Boston Tea Party, when colonists protested British efforts to tax tea imports and dumped tea into Boston Harbor. The modern tea party movement brought together people who were angry about, among other things, tax dollars going to federal bailouts of banks, automakers and mortgage holders, as well as massive stimulus spending in the wake of the financial crisis.

What's their platform?

Common themes are deficit reduction, opposition to spending "earmarks," reducing the size of government, eliminating mandates and repealing Obama's health care expansion. In recent months, there have been some efforts to rally tea party activists against global warming policy.

[BelegStrongbow]

I believe this reads like an 8th grade civics paper. The Bee has not been readable in many years now.

[screaminsunshine]

The Tea Party is the Counter Revolution.

[DManA]

In recent months, there have been some efforts to rally tea party activists against global warming policy.

That is just one aspect of the Tea Party antipathy toward big government. Global warming is simply a stalking horse to grow government to unprecedented levels.

[Oldpuppymax]

Dear Sac Bee,

Tea parties are represented by those who are fed up with LIBERALISM and RINOs!!!

[maxsand]

In 1937, U.S. Senator Josiah Bailey of North Carolina was concerned that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his New Deal programs were leading America and North Carolina down the road to collectivism. Although he did not oppose every attempt at government intervention, Senator Bailey believed that limitations should be placed on government growth...

The planning and writing of the manifesto were done without the knowledge of FDR. Eventually the secretive work of the bi-partisan alliance was leaked, and fearing political repercussions, many Senators denied any involvement with the creation of the Conservative Manifesto. Bailey, however, accepted responsibility.

According to Moore, the Conservative Manifesto’s ten points were as follows:
1. Immediate revision of taxes on capital gains and undistributed profits in order to free investment funds.
2. Reduced expenditures to achieve a balanced budget, and thus, to still fears deterring business expansion.
3. An end to coercion and violence in relations between capital and labor.
4. Opposition to “unnecessary” government competition with private enterprise.
5. Recognition that private investment and enterprise require a reasonable profit.
6. Safeguarding the collateral upon which credit rests.
7. Reduction of taxes, or if this proved impossible at the moment, firm assurance of no further increases.
8. Maintenance of state rights, home rule, and local self-government, except where proved definitely inadequate.
9. Economical and non-political relief to unemployed with maximum local responsibility. 10. Reliance upon the American form of government and the American system of enterprise.

[DManA]

Excellent start.

[68stanger]

And she never mentioned Taxed Enough Already, as what the tea stands for!

[UCANSEE2]

I thought that TEA was the acronym for TAXED ENOUGH ALREADY.

At least that is how I heard it originated. Granted, the Acronym does bring to mind the Boston Tea Party, but that got into destruction of property and that’s not what today’s TEA party is about.

I distinctly remember reading, from one of their original members, that they did not want to be associated with the original Tea Party incident, but with a protest against new taxes.

So, I think this article in wrong in linking the birth of the T.E.A. party with the Boston Tea Party.

And I think they are doing so on purpose. They want the public to associate destruction of property and violence with today’s TEA party, and they want it very, very badly.

[hinckley buzzard]

this reads like an 8th grade civics paper

Well yes but that is not a bad thing. You have to remember that most Bee readers have never had eighth grade civics. Most of them have never even had American history.

Elementary as it is, the article is a good intro to the Tea Party movement, the first true grass roots American movement in many decades.

If I were unfamiliar with the Party and the Partiers, I would be very re-assured by this simple article that the Tea Party is not the wild-eyed "extremist" organization the media whores have been telling me it is.