Tea Party Movement

The Tea Party movement has made a big splash in the United States. In the process they’ve pushed a new strand of conservative political thought. Some people see the movement as an attempt to move the US government back to its core roots, while others see it as a rallying point for people opposed to any kind of fairness in government. There are also people who think the movement has been hijacked by corporations and some who even see it as a racially motivated group, a charge that is strongly denied by most Tea Party enthusiasts.

The whole movement started when a commentator on the financial channel, CNBC named Rick Santelli, ranted against all the bailouts that the government had been giving during the worst parts of the global financial disaster of late 2008 and 2009. His argued that people shouldn’t have to bail out those who made financial mistakes, and that all these bailouts would only encourage people to continue being careless. He made a comment about how people needed to organize a tea party, much like the classic Tea Party taxation protest of American historical fame in the time prior to the revolutionary war. He was basically calling for an uprising, and his words started a huge tidal wave of agreement. Eventually many of the people organized and started actively protesting the spending activities of the US government.

The Tea Party movement has claimed that they aren’t necessarily Republicans or Democrats, but for the most part, they have gravitated towards the Republican party, mostly because that party has much more conservative financial views. Many believe their presence has actually changed the Republican Party by casing them to focus more on fiscal conservatism with an emphasis on reduction in spending.  Many in the tea party movement have actually been elected under the republican banner, and there has been some tension between traditional republicans and the Tea Party candidates, who tend to be more aggressive about cutting spending. Some are also very concerned about social issues like abortion, although that is far from a universal concern in the Tea Party. The movement generally has a very populist tone, and a strong anti-government message.

Some liberals believe the Tea Party movement is a danger to the health of the United States political discourse. Many believe that the higher ups in the tea party movement are totally beholden to big-business, and they are manipulating many of the grass roots activists. Others think that the real passion behind the movement is focused against president Barrack Obama because he is an African American.  Obviously, many in the Tea Party movement vehemently disagree with both of these views.