In 2009, the Tea Party burst like a glorious firework in the American night sky and then disappeared.
Where did it go? It was co-opted both from the top and from the bottom of American society. Let’s Review!
The Tea Party movement is said by some to have been born out of a Call to Action issued on February 19, 2009 by a CNBC reporter, Rick Santelli. He called for a second American Tea Party on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The Tea Party can also be traced back further to ex-president Ronald Reagan’s declaration that “government is the problem.”
The picture shows a group of angry Tea Party activists marching on Washington in September of 2009.
At its core, the group started as people fed up with government spending, a group with fiscally conservative ideals who supported reductions in spending and smaller government.
They were largely Republican voters, due presumably to the Republican’s long-standing characterization of Democrats as being spendthrifts and ne’er-do-wells. In reality, both political parties are spendthrifts and ne’er-do-wells, they just like to toss our money down different rabbit holes.
It is obvious why the Tea Party wouldn’t feel comfortable aligning with the party committed to spending massively on social reform. The irony is that the Tea Party was aligned more with the party most solidly committed to maintaining the status quo.
People joined the Tea Party for some very good reasons, to bring American government’s spending habits back into the realm of sanity and to put some limitations on how completely Big Government controls our lives.
Who wouldn’t like to see some revolutionary spirit once again reanimating the current American political scene?
However, as I said, the Tea Party was co-opted from both the top and the bottom.
The Republican Party isn’t in favor of smaller government, though it may occasionally pay lip service to that ideal. The Republican Party encouraged and cajoled the Tea Party out of existence.
The other source of destruction came from the bottom. Angry individuals bent on putting a stop to any and all forms of social progress blended right in. You may see them today. They are the ones wearing the red MAGA hats. We don’t have to make America Great again. It’s already Great! We just need to make sure it continues to improve and get better. Make America Better (MAB)!
Proposed: Let’s resurrect the Tea Party, a third party committed to reduced government spending and reduced government control over the rights of its citizens. Let’s resurrect the Tea Party as it started out and not as it became before it disappeared.
Go ahead and play your tea and crumpets game. Look at that picture from 2009, they are dying off. Demography is destiny. Capitalism is crumbling under its contradictions. Socialism is inevitable. History is on our side. Sharing is caring. We are all in this together.
Leon: I agree with that last part. We are all in this together.
“…both political parties are spendthrifts…” One is worse.
“Social reform” is a nice way of saying rushing to totalitarianism, which the neomarxists call “intersectionality.”
No, it is not ironic that the Tea Party is with the GOP; one must stop the expansion–maintain status quo–before rolling it back. At this time, there are two electable parties. One is worse. Compare the parties’ votes on excessive spending during this Congress.
“… any and all forms of social progress…” No, hyper government is not progress. Don’t call them “progressives,” they are aggressive expansionists of political dictatorship.
The fastest way to slow, stop, and roll them back to vote in Republican primaries.
Richard: Is one so much worse, and the other, so much better that we should tear the country apart with the four-year King of the Hill battle that we currently suffer through? I don’t think so!