By Brad Knickerbocker, Staff writer / September 15, 2010
In recent months, the "tea party" movement has swept across the
political landscape, sending shivers through both major political
parties and shaking up this year's midterm elections.
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Party - All coverage What began as a minor insurgency featuring
protesters waving signs of dubious syntax, followed by racially tinged
conspiracies about President Obama's lineage and religion and
ostentatiously displayed firearms – and cheered on by some
conservative commentators and bloggers – is now winning elections that
could determine the balance of power in the US Congress. (The main
question here is, does the trend favor Republicans or Democrats?)
There is no such thing as the "tea party." It is not organized as
such, and in fact the movement in some sense is antiparty – even
though most of its political pot-stirring has been within the GOP.
IN PICTURES: Tea Parties
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The "Taxed Enough Already" movement took initial aim at federal
government attempts to bail out and then stimulate a faltering economy
– attempts that had begun during the Bush administration – as well as
at the Obama administration's push for health-care insurance reform.
If the movement had a symbolic beginning, it was in January 2009 with
stock-trader Graham Makohoniuk's call to mail tea bags to members of
Congress. Conservative bloggers took up the theme, CNBC's Rick
Santelli made his famous rant against government help for underwater
home mortgages, and public protests around the country began.
Since then, the movement has sprouted (although not been defined or
controlled by) several major organizations.
Tea Party Patriots says it has more than 1,000 community-based tea
party groups around the country. The group's mission is to "attract,
educate, organize, and mobilize our fellow citizens to secure public
policy consistent with our three core values of Fiscal Responsibility,
Constitutionally Limited Government and Free Markets," according to
its website.
FreedomWorks, chaired by former US House majority leader Dick Armey,
claims "hundreds of thousands of grassroots volunteers nationwide."
FreedomWorks goes back to 1984, but has become a major source of the
tea party movement's promotion and activities. It was an organizer of
last Sunday's Taxpayer March on Washington.
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The Tea Party Express, based in Sacramento, Calif., was a major force
behind the Republican primary victories of Sharron Angle in Nevada,
Joe Miller in Alaska, and Christine O'Donnell in Delaware. It was also
a major donor to Scott Brown's successful campaign for US Senate in
Massachusetts.
Skip to next paragraph View gallery: Tea Parties
Related Stories
'Tea party' is polarizing, but has many 'closet admirers,' poll finds
'Tea party' Contract From America: Real plan or bumper sticker? Tea
Party - All coverage There may not be a "tea party" per se, but its
adherents' philosophy and aims are officially represented on Capitol
Hill. In July, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R) of Minnesota formed the Tea
Party Caucus. Fifty lawmakers quickly joined the group.
While national organizations and grass-roots groups have their own
stated goals, there is a tea party manifesto of sorts, which
candidates are being encouraged to endorse. It's the Contract From
America, launched by Ryan Hecker, an attorney and activist in Houston.
Meanwhile, a clearer picture of tea partyers is emerging.
In March, the Sam Adams Alliance, a Chicago-based nonprofit, issued a
report based on a national survey of the tea party movement, its
leaders, and their motivations.
Among the findings:
• 86 percent oppose the formation of a third party.
• 36 percent support a 2012 Sarah Palin presidential candidacy.
• 81 percent have a website for their organization.
• 90 percent cited "to stand up for my beliefs" when characterizing
their initial reason for involvement.
• 62 percent identified as Republicans, 28 percent as Independents, 10
percent as "Tea Party."
"Tea Party activists are for the most part new to this role," the
report states. "They are neither practiced nor polished in activism;
but having experienced a taste of the empowerment that comes with
action, they feel more than ever that this is their time to act. Above
all, they are motivated by a fear of NOT acting.... Their diversity is
their strength, and they are not a movement that can easily be defined
by those jumping up to lead them. They are powerful and, in this
sense, they are the 'early adopters' of a new type of political
involvement."
More recently, the Sam Adams Alliance reports that significant numbers
of newcomers to the tea party movement are dropping their affiliation
with the GOP: Forty-seven percent changed their political affiliation
to "Independent/unaffiliated," 20 percent changed to "other," 20
percent to "Tea Party," and 13 percent to "Libertarian."
That's exactly why Republicans as well as Democrats are very concerned
about this new movement in American politics.
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