TheTea Party protests were a series of protests throughout the United States that began in early 2009. The protests were part of the larger politicalTea Party movement.[1] Most Tea Party activities have since been focused on opposing efforts of theObama administration, and on recruiting, nominating, and supporting candidates for state and national elections.[2][3]The name "Tea Party" is a reference to theBoston Tea Party, whose principal aim was to protesttaxation without representation.[4][5] Tea Party protests evoked images, slogans and themes from theAmerican Revolution, such astri-corner hats and yellowGadsden "Don't Tread on Me" flags.[6][7] The letters T-E-A have been used by some protesters to form thebackronym "Taxed Enough Already".[8]
Commentators promoted Tax Day events on various blogs,Twitter, andFacebook, while theFox News Channel regularly featured televised programming leading into and promoting various protest activities.[9] Reaction to the tea parties included counter-protests expressing support for the Obama administration, and dismissive or mocking media coverage of both the events and their promoters.[9][10]
The theme of theBoston Tea Party, aniconic event of American history, has long been used by anti-tax protesters withlibertarian and conservative viewpoints.[17][18][19][20][21] It was part ofTax Day protests held throughout the 1990s and earlier.[22][23][24] The libertarian theme of the "tea party" protest has also been used byRepublican CongressmanRon Paul and his supporters during fundraising events in the primaries of the2008 presidential campaign to emphasizefiscal conservatism, which they later claimed laid the groundwork for the modern-day Tea Party movement.[25][26][27][28][29][30] In late 2008,Young Americans for Liberty, with the endorsement of Rep. Paul, organized a protest called theBinghamton Tea Party for January 24 of the following year where participants dressing in Native American costumes and dumping soft drinks intoNew York'sSusquehanna River, as a protest of former NY GovernorDavid Paterson's proposed 18% tax increase on soda.[31][32][33] As home mortgage foreclosures increased, and details of the 2009 stimulus legislation became known, more organized protests began to emerge.[34][35][36]
The dominant theme seen at some of the earliest anti-stimulus protests was "pork" rather than tea.[37] The term "porkulus" was coined by radio talk-show hostRush Limbaugh on his January 27, 2009, broadcast,[38] in reference to both the2009 stimulus bill, which had been introduced to the House of Representatives the day before, as well as topork-barrel spending andearmarks.[39] The term proved very popular with conservative politicians and commentators,[40] who began to unify in opposition against stimulus spending after the2008 general election.[41]
Competing claims have emerged over which protest was actually the first to organize. According toFreedomWorks state and federal campaigns director Brendan Steinhauser,[42][43] activist Mary Rakovich[44] was the organizer of a February 10 protest inFort Myers, Florida, calling it the "first protest of President Obama's administration that we know of. It was the first protest of what became the tea party movement."[45] Rakovich, along with six to ten others, protested outside a townhall meeting featuring President Obama and Florida governorCharlie Crist.[46] Interviewed by a local reporter, Rakovich explained that she "thinks the government is wasting way too much money helping people receive high definition TV signals" and that "Obama promotessocialism, although 'he doesn't call it that'".[46] Regarding the roleFreedomworks played in the demonstration, Rakovich acknowledged they were involved "right from the start,"[47] and said that in her 21⁄2 hour training session, she was taught how to attract more supporters and was specifically advised not to focus on President Obama.[48]
New York Times journalistKate Zernike reports that some within the Tea Party credit Seattle blogger and conservative activistKeli Carender with organizing the first Tea Party on February 16, 2009.[49] An article written by Chris Good ofThe Atlantic credits Carender as "one of the first" Tea Party organizers.[50]
Carendar organized what she called a "Porkulus Protest" on President's Day, a few days before Rick Santelli used the phrase "Tea Party" in what has been characterized as a "rant" broadcast from the floor of theChicago Mercantile Exchange.[51][52]
Carender contacted conservative author and Fox News contributorMichelle Malkin in order to gain her support and publicize the event. Malkin promoted the protest in several posts on her blog, saying that "There should be one of these in every town in America", and that she would be supplying the crowd with a meal of pulled pork. The protest was held inSeattle onPresidents Day, 2009.[53] Malkin encouraged her readers to stage similar events inDenver on the following day where President Obama was scheduled to sign the stimulus bill into law.
A protest at the Denver Capitol Building was already scheduled to coincide with the bill signing. Malkin reported that it was organized by the conservative advocacy groupAmericans for Prosperity and spearheaded by the conservative activist groupIndependence Institute, as well as former Republican representative and presidential candidateTom Tancredo.[54][55][56] Another protest organized by local conservative talk radio station KFYI was held in suburbanPhoenix, Arizona, on February 18, and brought 500 protesters.[57] KFYI organized the protest in reaction to Obama's visit to the local high school to hold his first public talk on elements of the stimulus bill.[58] By February 20, Malkin was using her nationally syndicated column in an attempt to present these three protests as a movement to her fellow conservatives, continuing to call for more. "There's something in the air", she wrote, "It's the smell of roasted pork."[59]
On February 19, 2009,[40] in a broadcast from the floor of theChicago Mercantile Exchange,CNBC Business News Network editorRick Santelli loudly criticized thegovernment plan to refinance mortgages as "promoting bad behavior" by "subsidizing losers' mortgages", and raised the possibility of putting together a "Chicago Tea Party in July".[60][61] A number of the traders and brokers around him cheered on his proposal, to the apparent amusement of the hosts in the studio. It was called "the rant heard round the world".[62] Santelli's remarks "set the fuse to the modern anti-Obama Tea Party movement", according to journalistLee Fang.[63]
The following day after Santelli's comments from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, 50national conservative leaders, includingMichael Johns,Amy Kremer andJenny Beth Martin, participated in a conference call that gave birth to the national Tea Party movement.[64][65] In response to Santelli, websites such as ChicagoTeaParty.com, registered in August 2008 by Chicago radio producer Zack Christenson, were live within twelve hours.[66] About 10 hours after Santelli's remarks, reTeaParty.com was bought to coordinate Tea Parties scheduled for the 4th of July and within two weeks was reported to be receiving 11,000 visitors a day.[66] However, on the contrary, many scholars are reluctant to label Santelli's remarks the "spark" of the Tea Party considering that a "Tea Party" protest had taken place 3 days before in Seattle, Washington[67] In fact, this had led many opponents of the Tea Party to define this movement as "astroturfed," but it seems as if Santelli's comments did not "fall on deaf ears" considering that, "the top 50 counties in foreclosure rates played host to over 910 Tea Party protests, about one-sixth of the total"[67]
Also on February 19,Young Americans for Liberty NY State Chairman Trevor Leach created a Facebook page called "The Capitalist Chicago Tea Party – Rick's Revolution", in response to Santelli's call for a national Tea Party.[68][69] According toThe Huffington Post, a Facebook page was developed on February 20 calling for Tea Party protests across the country.[70] Eric Odom of the conservative activist group FreedomWorks was one of the group administrators, and it was created byPhil Kerpen from the conservative advocacy organizationAmericans for Prosperity. Soon, the "Nationwide Chicago Tea Party" protests were coordinated across over 40 different cities for February 27, 2009, establishing the first national modern Tea Party protest.[71][72]
April 15, 2009 is said to have been the day that had the largest number of tea party demonstrations reportedly in more than 750 cities.[73] Estimates of protesters and locations varied.The Christian Science Monitor reported on the difficulties of calculating a cumulative turnout and said some estimates state that over half a million Americans participated in the protests, noting, "experts say the counting itself often becomes politicized as authorities, organizers, and attendees often come up with dramatically different counts."[74][75]Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, estimated that at least 268,000 attended in over 200 cities.[76] StatisticianNate Silver, manager ofFiveThirtyEight.com, has said that a cumulativecrowd size estimate from credible sources was of 311,460 attendees in 346 cities, which accounted for all capitols and major cities little noticeable or no reliable media coverage in other protests could have contributed to a lower number of attendees and locations.[77] The largest event, inAtlanta, drew between an estimated 7,000 to 15,000 protesters.[77][78][79] Some of the gatherings drew only dozens.[74]
On April 15, 2009, a Tea Party protest outside theWhite House was moved after a box of tea bags was hurled over the White House fence. Police sealed off the area and evacuated some people. TheSecret Service brought out a bomb-detecting robot, which determined the package was not a threat.[80] Approximately one thousand people had demonstrated, several waved placards saying "Stop Big Government" and "Taxation is Piracy".[12]
A number of Tea Party protests were held the weekend of July 4, 2009, coinciding with Independence Day.[99][100] "The rally followed a national effort that drew thousands of activists to Tea Party events across the country on April 15, 2009, when incometaxes are due."[101]
On September 12, 2009, Tea Party protests were held in various cities around the nation. In Washington, D.C., Tea Party protests gathered to march fromFreedom Plaza to theUnited States Capitol. Estimates of the number of attendees varied, from "tens of thousands"[14] to "in excess of 75,000".[103][104] A rally organizer asserted that one localABC News station had reported attendance of over one million, but he retracted the statement after ABC News denied making any such report.[105]
Using the counts of those in attendance, the march may have been the largestconservative protest ever held in Washington, D.C., as well as the largest demonstration againstPresident Obama's administration to date.[106][107]
On February 4, 2010, the firstTea Party national convention was held inNashville, attended by 600 people.[108] The convention received broad media coverage as former GOP vice presidential candidateSarah Palin was the featured speaker. Some tea partiers condemned the event, questioning the main sponsor,Tea Party Nation, a for-profit group, as well as the several hundred dollar ticket price. The former Alaska governor was criticized[109][110] for receiving as much as $100,000 to address the convention.[111]
The New York Times reported on August 8, 2009, that organizations opposed to the President Obama's health care legislation were urging opponents to be disruptive. It noted that the Tea Party Patriots web site circulated a memo instructing them to "Pack the hall. Yell out and challenge the Rep's statements early. Get him off his prepared script and agenda. Stand up and shout and sit right back down." The memo continued, "The Rep [representative] should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes thesocialist agenda of Washington."[112]
Some Tea Party organizers have stated that they look toleftistSaul Alinsky'sRules for Radicals for inspiration. Protesters have alsoappropriatedleft-wing imagery; the logo for the March 9/12 on Washington featured araised fist design that was intended to resemble those used by thepro-labor,anti-war, andblack power movements of the 1960s. In addition, the slogan "Keep Your Laws Off My Body", usually associated withpro-choice activists, has been seen on signs at tea parties.[113]
On April 8, 2010, it was announced that theNational Tea Party Federation had been set up to publicize the movement, and organizers said it would issue news releases, respond to critics and help get the word out about tea party rallies and initiatives.[114] Tea Party activist Mark Skoda noted the slow response to critics who have charged the protesters with racism, stating: "It took us 72 hours to respond to John Lewis... We're not needing to meet every week. But there will now be a way to have a call to arms to respond to attacks with a crisp and clear message."[114][115]
On March 16, 2010, at a Tea Party protest at the Ohio offices of Rep.Mary Jo Kilroy, a counter-protester withParkinson's disease was berated by one of the protesters and had dollar bills thrown at him with additional protesters also mocking the individual.[121] The man initially denied the incident, but later apologized for his "shameful" actions.[120]
On March 20, 2010, it was reported that protesters against proposed health care legislation used racial and anti-gay slurs. Gay CongressmanBarney Frank was called "homo" and a "faggot several times."[122][123][124] Several black lawmakers said demonstrators shouted "the N-word" at them.[125] CongressmanAndré Carson said that as he walked from theCannon House Office Building with RepresentativeJohn Lewis and his chief of staff, amid chants of "Kill the bill", he heard the "n-word" about fifteen times coming from several places in the crowd: "One guy, I remember he just rattled it off several times. Then John looks at me and says, 'You know, this reminds me of a different time.'"[122][126][127] CongressmanEmanuel Cleaver said that, as he walked several yards behind Lewis, he distinctly heard "nigger", and he was also spat upon by a protester while walking up the stairs of the Cannon Building, although whether the spitting was intentional has been questioned.[122][123][127]
Conservative commentatorAndrew Breitbart, who wasn't at the protests,[127] said the incidents reported by Cleaver, Lewis and Carson were fabricated as part of a plan to annihilate the Tea Party movement by all means necessary and that they never actually happened. He offered to donate $10,000 to theUnited Negro College Fund if Lewis could provide audio or video footage of the slurs, or pass a lie detector test. The amount was later raised to $100,000 for "hard evidence".[127][128][129] In addition, the National Tea Party Federation sent a letter to theCongressional Black Caucus (CBC) denouncing racism and requesting that the CBC supply any evidence of the alleged events at the protest.[115]
RepresentativeHeath Shuler of North Carolina, who is white, backed up his colleagues, telling theHendersonville (N.C.)Times-News that he too heard slurs.[127]Richard Trumka, president of theAFL–CIO, corroborated Lewis' version of events during a confrontation with Breitbart at a Harvard Institute of Politics forum by saying, "I watched them spit at people, I watched them call John Lewis the N-word. [...] I witnessed it. I saw it in person. That's real evidence."[130][131][132] One of RepresentativeAnthony Weiner's staffers reported a stream of hostile encounters with tea partiers roaming the halls of Congress. In addition to mockery, protesters left a couple of notes behind. According to the New YorkDaily News, one letter "asked whatRahm Emanuel did with Weiner in the shower", in a reference to the harassment claims against ex-RepEric Massa. It was signed with aswastika, the staffer said. The other note called the congressman "Schlomo Weiner".[119]
Kate Zernike, author ofBoiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America, has observed, "Rather than explain it as a fringe of the movement, which they plausibly might have, they argued that the ugliness had never happened. Wasn't it suspicious, they asked, that there was no video of spitting or slurs, in an age when everyone's cell phone has a camera? It was difficult, if not disingenuous, for the Tea Party groups to try to disown the behavior."[133] Politicians from both political parties, black conservative activists and columnists have argued that allegations of racism do not reflect the movement as a whole.[134][135][136][137]
^"FreedomWorks' Long History Of Teabagging". April 19, 2009. Archived fromthe original on September 15, 2009. RetrievedMarch 4, 2010.but they didn't have an explicitly tea-based theme. If they had a theme of any kind it was "pork" and government waste.
^"FreedomWorks' Long History Of Teabagging". April 19, 2009.Archived from the original on September 15, 2009. RetrievedMarch 4, 2010.but they didn't have an explicitly tea-based theme. If they had a theme of any kind it was 'pork' and government waste.
^abTam Cho, Wendy K., James G. Gimpel, and Daron R. Shaw. "The Tea Party Movement and the Geography of Collective Action." Quarterly Journal of Political Science 7.2 (2012): 105–33.
Lepore, Jill (2010).The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party's Revolution and the Battle over American History. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.ISBN978-1-4008-3696-3.
