The Tea Party movement is a populist,[1] conservative/libertarian,[2]/[3]grassroots,[4][5][6] political movement in the United States that emerged in 2009 through a series of locally and nationally coordinated protests.[7][8][9] The protests were partially in response to several Federal laws: the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008,[10] the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,[11][12] and a series of healthcare reform bills.[13]
The name “Tea Party” echoes the Boston Tea Party, a 1773 incident when colonists destroyed British tea rather than paying what they considered a tax that violated their right to “No Taxation without Representation.”[14] As of 2010, it is not a national political party, does not officially run Congressional candidates, and its name has not appeared on any ballots.[15]
According to pollster Scott Rasmussen, the bailouts of banks by the Bush andObama administrations triggered the Tea Party’s rise. The interviewer adds that the movement’s anger centers on three issues, quoting Rasmussen as saying, “They think federal spending, deficits and taxes are too high, they think no one in Washington is listening to them, and putting Sarah Palin into power, that latter point is really, really important.”[16] The movement has no central leadership but is a loose affiliation of smaller local groups.[17] The movement’s primary concerns include, but are not limited to, cutting back the size of government,[18] lowering taxes,[19] reducing wasteful spending,[19] reducing the national debt and federal budget deficit,[18] and adherence to the United States Constitution
Tea Party symbols
The Gadsden Flag, an informal flag dating to 1774, has been adopted by the Tea Party.[51]Activists have embraced the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag and its message, but use of the flag itself has generated local controversies.
[edit]Composition of the movement
[edit]Membership and demographics
Several polls have been conducted on the demographics of the movement. Though the various polls sometimes turn up slightly different results, they tend to show that Tea Party supporters are mainly white and slightly more likely to be male, married, older than 45, more conservative than the general population, and likely to be more wealthy and have more education.[52][53][54][55][56]
One notable exception to that finding is the Gallup poll, which found that other than gender, income and politics, self-described Tea Party members were demographically similar to the population as a whole.[57]
When surveying supporters or participants of the Tea Party movement, polls have shown that they are significantly more likely to be registered Republican, have a favorable opinion of the Republican Party and an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party.[56][58] The Bloomberg News poll showed that 40% are 55 or older, 79% are white, 61% are men and 44% identify as “born-again“ Christians,[59] compared to 23.4%,[60] 75%,[61] 48.5%,[62], and 34%[63] for the general population, respectively.
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