The Tea Party... which, by some association, I guess I am part of, but I am really not one of them.
The Tea Party started as a wake up to the Republican party, remind them to be, in some sense, conservative. Because there hasn't been on republican President in 100 years who has been conservative whatsoever. The closest thing to any form of conservatism we have seen in the White House was ironically, Bill Clinton.
Well, somewhere in the midst of the 2010 elections, votes from both main partys and some of the smaller ones formed many grass roots movements allover the United States. By some media label, they were called the Tea Party. They, as in town-hall like, politically minded people who support every which issue and angle possible in hopes to redefine how we determine the basic structure of the federal government. Some people didn't like the label, some did. Some claim to be Tea Party conservatives when they weren't, ect. It's a mess when you try to apply the label to anything, and if you want to simplify it, you're just being flat out ignorant.
This movement became very catchy and marketable. Therefore the label had a high value of it's own. The establishment saw an opportunity, and they hijacked this movement, to make it their own. Therefore there is no real way to describe what it is, but if you want to call the current Tea Party anything, you can call it the politicians favorite scapegoat.
What it was originally, was a fundraiser that happened on the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party for Ron Paul back in December of 07. This is where more people had financially contributed to an election on a single day, than anytime ever in the history of politics. They didn't raise the most money, but more people had contributed. It ended up being around $6.5 million for the day, and it made such big headlines, that it coined the re-introduction of the ideas of the Tea Party. Then going into the 2010 elections, Ron Paul's son, Rand Paul, turned it into a platform of sorts when he ran against the media's choice, and establishment's choice for Senate. He states that he was supporting the ideas of the contributors of that day, and the movement within. But since then, like I said, the phrase/label/term has been completely hijacked.
Therefore when you hear it used, it's rarely, if ever used in the same context that represents the Boston Tea party, and the original grass roots contributors that made history.
By association, I guess I can be called a Tea Party *insert derogatory phrase here*, but I have my own ideas, and I only side with some conservative ideas, I do not adopt the platform.
