What is Tea Party movement?

[Coearth]

Hi guys. I have a vague idea that the U.S. Tea Party movement is about anti-government spending. Can someone enlighten me why this group of people is called 'Tea Party' (sounds like a cute name), and what is the purpose of their movement? Just curious 

[FarmerD]

Hi guys. I have a vague idea that the U.S. Tea Party movement is about anti-government spending. Can someone enlighten me why this group of people is called 'Tea Party' (sounds like a cute name), and what is the purpose of their movement? Just curious 

The general consensus is the term "Tea Party" originated with a rant on live television by CNBC's Rick Santelli who went off about proposed bailouts of underwater homeowners.  I think he also was fired up about govt bailouts in general.  In the middle of his rant he stated that US taxpayers needed to have a "tea party" to oppose so much govt spending.  The video of his rant went viral and a grass roots movement began.

I have read Ron Paul is considered the intellectual godfather of the movement.  Studies of the people who self identify as Tea Party followers indicate the majority of followers to be libertarian.  That's why Democrat claims the Tea Party is some kind of far right wing Bible thumping racist group is nothing more than a smear.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Paul
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEZB4taSEoA
http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/11/tea-p ... -suggests/
http://www.npr.org/2012/05/06/152148229 ... -2012-race

[FarmerD]

By the way, you have a nice blog.  Soon we will have a PP website set up in every country on earth. 



This is, of course, our first step on the path to total world domination. 

[MachineGhost]

Hi guys. I have a vague idea that the U.S. Tea Party movement is about anti-government spending. Can someone enlighten me why this group of people is called 'Tea Party' (sounds like a cute name), and what is the purpose of their movement? Just curious  :P

At least in the media, it initially seemed like it was frustrated (with the Wall Street bailouts and joblessness), scarcity-consciousness, white male Republicans who said dumb things like "I want government spending and taxes to be eliminated, but keep your hands off my Medicare and Social Security you damn dirty ape!" to local politicians at town hall meetings.  Another example is Romney recently saying during the first debate, "I won't cut education." and "I won't cut the military." (I'm paraphrasing all of this.)  Republicans have a lot of cognitive dissonance involving economic liberty and patriarcherical statism.

Democrats do better among women, single voters, those who attend church less frequently, and those with more education. Republicans run best among men, married voters, regular churchgoers, and people without advanced education.

Libertarians take the best from both sides and junk the irrationality.

[AdamA]

...what is the purpose of their movement?

Not sure anyone really knows.

[BearBones]

...what is the purpose of their movement?

Not sure anyone really knows.

Then sounds like they should get together with the Occupy Wall Street folks.

[MediumTex]

...what is the purpose of their movement?

Not sure anyone really knows.

The purpose of the tea party is to have rallies, sell t-shirts and provide sound bites for the media.

[Coffee]

The Tea Party has fielded several successful candidates.  I think it's a little more than just a vehicle to sell t-shirts.

[Coearth]

Thanks all for the enlightenmet. Now I can have better sense of what is going on when i see U.S. news mention about Tea Party

@FarmerD: Thanks for your appreciation of my blog. I am kind of out of ideas already about what else to write about PP in the context of my local market. Most PP information is already around the internet somewhere.

[MediumTex]

The Tea Party has fielded several successful candidates.  I think it's a little more than just a vehicle to sell t-shirts.

It reminds me a lot of the Ross Perot movement in 1992.

It looked for a while like that had legs, but then the two major parties swallowed them up.

I predict the Republicans will figure out a way to soak up most of the tea partiers in the next four years.

[Pointedstick]

I think they already have. Doesn't seem like the Libertarian wing of the movement has really had any success at doing much of anything, while the Republican wing has gotten candidates elected.

[smurff]

Hi guys. I have a vague idea that the U.S. Tea Party movement is about anti-government spending. Can someone enlighten me why this group of people is called 'Tea Party' (sounds like a cute name), and what is the purpose of their movement? Just curious  :P

Coearth, in 1773, Boston (Massachusetts), the American colonists protested against the Tea Act, where the British (British East India Tea Company) imposed taxes on tea shipped to the colonies. The issue was that the colonists were being taxed by Britain, and they believed that if they were going to be taxed at all it should be by their fellow colonists with the tax revenues remaining in the colonies. They protested by boarding a ship that held taxed tea and dumped crates of it into Boston Harbor.  That act came to be know as the Boston Tea Party, and it was one of the defining moments in American colonial history leading to the American Revolution of 1776.

The connection between the Boston Tea Party of 1773 and  the current-day Tea Party is the protests over government use of tax revenues--in the current case, the use of tax money to bail out banks, overly indebted homeowners, automobile manufacturers, etc.  It started out as a nonpartisan, somewhat libertarian populist protest movement with a diverse membership drawn from the left, the right, and the middle, but it quickly became part of the Republican Party. When that happened, the membership changed rapidly, to the point where it is now primarily made up of conservative white male Republicans.

[stone]

...what is the purpose of their movement?

Not sure anyone really knows.

Then sounds like they should get together with the Occupy Wall Street folks.

I'm not an American but to me the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street are/were railing against much the same thing- basically government being commandeered by the elite to disempower the wider population.

[MachineGhost]

I predict the Republicans will figure out a way to soak up most of the tea partiers in the next four years.

I think they will need to as they're rapidly fading into demographic irrelevance.

But I can also foresee the Tea Party movement being the viable third party that is going to appear in 2016.  This could come about because Obama is re-elected and doesn't amp up "Change We Can Believe In", or because Romney gets elected, stops pandering and reverts to his true colors as a Progressive and disgusts the entire right.

I actually think Romney would be best because of his no-nonsense, corporate CEO attitude towards reigning and reforming government.  Obama is just simply in over his head.  But there's so much made up B.S. floating around from both sides, the election won't be decided on something that rational.

[Benko]

I actually think Romney would be best because of his no-nonsense, corporate CEO attitude towards reigning and reforming government.  Obama is just simply in over his head. 

thank you.

[Storm]

Reub, it's a bit of a stretch to say that Obamacare is wildly unpopular.  The majority of Americans like it, and benefit from it.

[BearBones]

It seems disingenuous for anyone to criticize big government and Obamacare without providing a detailed plan to address our entitlement programs (MDCR, MDCD, SS) and defense, together which encompass the vast majority of federal expenditures.



Other than Ron Paul, who has been willing to face the American public with this stark truth? Not Obama. Not Romney. Not Sarah Palin.

[Storm]

Amen, BearBones.  I found it amusing when Romney spoke of cutting the PBS budget as a way to reduce the deficit:



Besides, killing Sesame Street is really going to win over those "family values" voters:

[Pointedstick]

The notion that either of the clowns running is going to make a dent in the federal deficit is as silly as the notion that it needs to be done to begin with.

[BearBones]

The notion that either of the clowns running is going to make a dent in the federal deficit is as silly as the notion that it needs to be done to begin with.

If it is true that the federal debt/deficit does not matter, then why not take things to the extreme, given the stagnant economy? Anti-austerity measures. Eliminate all taxes and increase federal spending on energy, infrastructure, education, and care for the destitute and ill. See any problem with that?

[Storm]

What I don't understand about the Tea Party movement, is that they seemed to have some very radical, yet interesting ideas, and then they got co-opted into the big tent of the GOP and now they vote for big government, big deficit candidates just like the other 90% of America.

What happened to integrity?  If you really believe in the Tea Party you'll write in Ron Paul, regardless of whether he is on the ballot in your state or not.  Romney told 27 lies in 38 minutes.  If you really believe he will cut one cent from the deficit, you're fooling yourself.  In fairness, Obama would do no better at cutting the deficit.

or vote Gary Johnson,
the republicans are masters at giving lip service to the principals of limited government and upholding the constitution, the tea party wanted to hold their feet to the fire and try to shift them from being all talk to real action. they made a small amount of progress in that direction .....then the people they elected went to congress..... (seeking an office corrupts holding an office corrupts absolutely) after the rules changes and the treatment they and Ron Paul got in the primary's and at the convention they are sadly misguided if they still think the Powers That Be in the GOP are going to let them have an influence on anything other than the rhetoric and the amount of lip service they give to principals

[MediumTex]

I assume that the person who put together the Romney picture above isn't aware that he signed into law an assault weapons ban in Massachusetts.

It would probably have better to show Romney holding a bolt action rifle.  Actually, a shotgun would make more sense if you are posing with a bird you have killed.

[melveyr]

If it is true that the federal debt/deficit does not matter, then why not take things to the extreme, given the stagnant economy? Anti-austerity measures. Eliminate all taxes and increase federal spending on energy, infrastructure, education, and care for the destitute and ill. See any problem with that?

Exactly. If we cut taxes and increased spending dramatically economic recovery would not be far away. We would have an uptick in inflation but in real terms things would improve.

Now you said eliminate taxes. That would be dangerous because taxation is what drives the value of a fiat currency. Government not only says the dollar has value, but they express it by accepting as a means of payment, most notably through taxation.

When the British arrived in Africa, they attempted to pay the locals in pounds for goods and services. The locals didn't want pounds, and the British concluded that they were lazy! The locals saw no value in tokens with a picture of the queen on them. The solution was a hut tax. The British imposed a tax on each hut, only payable in pounds. The locals immediately began exchanging goods and services for the pound and they used it as a medium of exchange between themselves.

The British didn't need pounds from the locals, they needed goods and services. In fact, the locals didn't even have pounds before the British arrived! The taxation was not imposed out of a desire to acquire pounds, but rather to get the natives to accept it.

The US government doesn't need dollars from the private sector, it needs goods and services. In fact, the private sector wouldn't even have dollars if the US government never created them! The taxation is not imposed out of a desire to acquire dollars, but rather to get the private sector to accept it as a means of payment.

[Pointedstick]

The notion that either of the clowns running is going to make a dent in the federal deficit is as silly as the notion that it needs to be done to begin with.

If it is true that the federal debt/deficit does not matter, then why not take things to the extreme, given the stagnant economy? Anti-austerity measures. Eliminate all taxes and increase federal spending on energy, infrastructure, education, and care for the destitute and ill. See any problem with that?

I should have been more precise. Monetarily, the deficit doesn't matter right now because there are still substantial deflationary forces at work, roughly counterbalancing the inflation caused by the extra money. So yes, we should indeed raise spending on things that matter and cut taxes.

In the end, government-created fiat money has value because 1) taxes have to be paid in it and 2) there's a large productive base of people who want to use it. With no taxes, there goes #1. #2 becomes problematic because the more the government spends on certain industries, the more it skews society toward those industries (people can't resist the lure of plentiful money). Right now the federal government plow money into the military, medicine, and various forms of welfare for the poor, old, and hungry. The result is that military IT consultants, defense companies, and insurance companies get rich, and we wind up with more people who are poor, old, and hungry.

It would definitely be an improvement to cancel the welfare and warfare programs and instead subsidize energy, infrastructure, and education. But institutional design is important. For decades, the federal government has subsidized higher education, with the result of continuously skyrocketing tuition due to the essentially risk-free nature of student loan issuers making colleges push up tuition because every student can easily go into debt.

IMHO, if we can't scrap the current system, the next best alternative would be for the federal government to distribute the newly-created money in an even fashion among everyone rather than shower it on certain favored industries, distorting their market incentives and influence.

[BearBones]

The last 2 posts were very helpful. But Melveyr, I must admit that I find you kind of insulting. Not because of anything you say, but because you are so smart and you are but a fraction of my age. 
Thanks.