Exactly!
I’ve been saying this for over a year but no one will accept it. The media has won placing THE Tea Party in the minds of the public.
To me, it’s not a political party, it’s not an organization, it’s an idea.
And I say "Exactly" back to you. Today's Tea Party is no more a political party than the original Tea Party when (as all FReepers know) colonists (protesters) simply, by agreement and word of mouth, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. This, of course, as we all know led to the beginning of the American Revolution. There was no ONE leader then, it was not an entity of itself, per se, and there is not now a singular, official "party."
The problem is, the leftists do not know their history, hence the idea of today's Tea Partiers escapes them.
Liberals are so used to being led like sheep by their egotistical, socialist agenda politicians and media, that they cannot accept the concept of people thinking for themselves and simply coming out en masse against injustices because they agree on a concept. And, that freedom loving people in the United States have been able to show - in increasing numbers - their dissatisfaction with this administration without the need for one individual in charge to whom they pay homage.
What was also so clever about the humble beginnings of this grass roots movement was that there was not only a use of the "idea" of our forefathers' “Tea Party” in Boston, but when this movement began about two years ago, the letters T.E.A. were capitalized as they stood for "Taxed Enough Already."
So the name of today's Tea Party had a dual symbology. (If symbology is a word, LOL). That is the beauty of it. It captures the spirit of our ancestors and the dismay of today's taxpayers who don't need someone/anyone to tell them what they do not like about the laws and taxes our politicians are passing without listening to “We The People .”