The Hill

Tea Time

Julia Newman

 

        Thomas L. Knapp founded the Boston Tea Party in 2006.  The Tea Party is not a political party, but rather a populist movement.  The Tea Party is very conservative both fiscally and socially.  The main platform of the Tea Party is that the government needs to decrease its size, power, and scope.  Also, a main belief of the Tea Party is that both Republicans and Democrats overspend in the government.   Some politicians associated with the Tea Party are: former Alaskan Governor and former Republican nominee for Vice President Sarah Palin, Representative Marsha Blackburn (Republican from Tennessee), and conservative commentators Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.

     On February 5, 2010, the Tea Party had their first convention.  At this convention their most notable speak was former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin. One of the important goals stated at the convention was to make the Tea Party into a real political power.  This includes a plan to form a political committee to help raise campaign money and political consulting for Tea Party backed candidates.

 

• Populist movement:  A discourse that claims to support "the people" versus "the elites.” Also urges social and political change.
• Fiscally: Economically

 

• Argument against:
• Because the Tea Party’s ideology is more closely associated with the Republican Party than the Democratic Party, they could take away votes from more moderate Republican candidates.
• Furthermore, because of the association between the Republican Party and the more extreme Tea Party, there is the possibility that moderate voters could be put off by the relationship between the two.
• Argument for:
• Third parties (such as the Tea Party) are a perfect example of exercising free speech.
• The Tea Party is slowly getting their name and platform in a predominately two party system, which allows a viable option for like-minded voters.

 

Additional Information:

-http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/06/tea-party-organizers-eye-the-2010-elections/

-http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/04/explainer.tea.party/index.html?hpt=C2

-http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/06/us/politics/06teaparty.html