A Russian asks: What is the Tea Party movement?

Hi folks.
Unfortunately I don't know much about American political affairs. But I have heard a contradictory information about the Tea Party movement. In my view the Tea Party’s really interesting American movement. Could you tell me is the Tea Party a true patriotic movement or a spoiler party created to draw votes away from one of the two major parties?
And what do you think about this article? Is it a reliable information or another bullship?
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NEW YORK – Who were those flag-waving, cheering, hollering, singing, and praying Americans who gathered in Washington DC on the last Saturday in August at a rally to “restore the honor” of the United States? This tax-free jamboree of patriotism was ostensibly non-partisan (otherwise it could not have been tax-free). The main organizer and speaker was Glenn Beck, the right-wing populist radio and TV personality, who promised to restore not only the nation’s honor, but “American values,” too.

The other star was Sarah Palin, the darling of the populist Tea Party crowds, who began by paying her respect to Martin Luther King, Jr. For it was here, on this very same spot and date, that he gave his “I have a dream” speech in 1963. She then quickly proceeded to give a long celebratory speech about the heroism of US soldiers “fighting for freedom” abroad.

It seemed an odd – and to many offensive – transition: from King’s great plea for civil rights to Palin’s sentimental clichés about the military. But then there was something odd about the entire event, just as there is something odd about the Tea Party movement itself. This latest surge of American populism is financed by some extremely wealthy men, including a couple of oil billionaires named David and Charles Koch, who favor cutting taxes for the super-rich and abolishing government subsidies for the poor, such as Social Security and President Barack Obama’s health-care plan.

This agenda might seem selfish, though understandable from the point of view of an oil billionaire. But who are all those people wildly cheering for the billionaire’s dream, on of all days the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s speech? They are almost uniformly white, largely middle-aged and above, and for the most part far from wealthy.

The majority have no college degree. Many say that they are afraid of losing their jobs. No doubt quite a few of them would have trouble paying the astronomical costs of American health-care bills without government assistance. In other words, they would benefit from the publicly financed programs that the Tea Party’s sponsors wish to abolish.

And yet, there they are, denouncing as “socialism” Obama’s health-care legislation, or a slight tax increase for the richest 1% of the population. To them, “socialism” means “European”, or simply “un-American.” Unlike the movement’s sponsors, the crowds chanting “USA! USA!” do not appear to be motivated by economic self-interest.
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-great-american-tea-party

 

I am not really qualified to give an answer, but it seems to be a group of mostly conservative older people who are against higher taxes, against the healthcare mandate, but who are against any cuts in their social security pensions. There also seems to be a big anti-immigration element within the Tea Party.

I suppose the best word for them are popular conservatives- conservative voters who are against what they see are corruption/incompetence and excessive big business interests in the Republican party. Since America is a two-party system, the only choice is to try to influence/change their own party, because forming a new party is not a realistic option. There is also some people are are against free trade or against the Federal Reserve bank system within the Tea Party. Basically, the Tea Party is a group of conservatives that were unhappy with their party leadership. There seems to be an inter-party struggle going on within the Republican Party.

 

For some outsiders, it may be difficult to understand why lower middle class people are conservatives, against higher taxes. I think one of the main reasons is the tendancy of liberal policies to be against the private sector and in favor of more funding to the public sector. By far, most public employees in America vote for liberals. It is not just that one's occupation determines one's political affiliation, but also the other way aroung. A certain type of personality/segment of society is attracted towards government work, and these people are the ones more likely to have liberal beliefs. One's position in society, what one's personal experiences are in their own life, affects how they see the world. For example, the upper middle class is much more insulated from the effects of immigration, whereas the lower middle class is directly affected by job competition, crime, overcrowding, and declining schools. So the upper middle class is often unable to understand why the lower middle class is against immigration. And also the liberal's policy of welfare to the poor does not directly help the lower middle class.

So in a way, we can view politics as a power struggle between various special interest groups. But also driven by apathy towards the concerns of others, and false perceptions of reality. I am sure this is how it is in every country.

 

I have only attended a couple of tea party rallies. But what I saw a both of them were middle class business owners complaining about paying taxes and a bunch of evangelical Christians calling Obama communist or a fascist. (I never asked how he could be both)

It seemed to be a confused bunch.

 

Bullship .. lol, I love it!
There is one company in Canada called - Battlegoats. Well, I believe Bullship is something Battlegoats developed.

 

I said "bullship" because the "b u l l s h i t " is an obscene word. Do you know that? RTFM, you f...ing polyglot

 

Very informative. thank you for the answer.

absolutely

 

The duality of man? lol

 

Actually the Tea Party started out with a few demonstrating against banks and the bailouts. The movement was quickly hijacked by the likes of the billionaire Koch brothers, the Waltons and other far right operatives by throwing millions into the movement. They preached that Obama was a muslim, a socialist, a fascist and an African putting great fear into the lower IQ electorate. Add to this a little coded racism and some false info to the gun nuts and we were able to elect a majority of retards in the House of Representatives. Now the GOP has the problem of trying to get the independent vote who are moderates and keep their base of really uneducated fearful Tea Party voters. November is the rubber match. Be there or be square. All in all, not much different than Putin's election.

 

Its mostly a political movement consisting of old, angry, bald-headed white men basically upset at the political situation in Washington, D.C. and are holdovers from the McCarthy Era teachings that anything not Republican or conservative was evil and must be destroyed. They'll end up eventually like the so-called Reform Party. That's it in a nutshell.,

 

Yes i've heard that. We have some so-called "pocket movements" here, in Russia as well.

 

I seem hard on our electorate, but the US and the Russian people will put up with BS for only so long and the pendulum will swing the other way, it's just the damage that get done in the meantime...

 

Sauer, understand that this is the wrong place to ask such a question. This place is inhabited almost exclusively by partisan political hacks who will color their responses by their own political leaning. The tea party is not a political party. It was named after the Boston Tea Party which was an event that began the revolutionary war that split the U.S. from Great Britain in the 1770's.

It is a group of people who want better fiscal management from the federal government and a smaller government overall. As a group, they have backed some candidates that believe as they do. These candidates are unpopular with the left wing which wants more and bigger government. They are also somewhat unpopular with the right wing which views them as extremists. What people think of them is simply opinion. They aren't anything other that a group of people who don't like the way the government spends money.

 

1776 and 1917, respectively.

 

As an American, I can tell you, that the Tea Party is the party of the American Christian far right. This is what the statistics of the members of the Tea Party shows, when collecting the data about their political affiliations from before the start of the Tea Party movement. Apart from that, they campaign against government involvement in the every-day American life. Too bad they don't realize that your life is always determined by others who have the most money around the land, and if that is not an elected government, then you can't even vote them out of power. Thus, the Tea Party people are pawns of the public relations games that the leading US banking/insurance cartels play at every presidential election cycle.

 

Ty for the detailed information folks.
Btw is there any probability of emergence of the ”third forces” who can compete with your reps and democrats? Or with all due respect for your other movements they ’re just a “storm in a teacup”?

 

"Workers of the world, unite!"...LMAO

 

As a self-proclaimed independent in the USA, fmw's perspective is the most accurate (post 13). Anders Hoveland has a good grasp and spt5 is a media hack that wants to distort the acronym Taxed Enough Already (i..e. T.E.A. Party) as the liberal USA media wants the world (i.e. you) to see the Tea Party.

 

Actually, most of the descriptions have been somewhat correct. Filtering out the negative points about the Tea Party is not the honest way of doing it, making you somewhat of a hack yourself(as long as you're going to accuse spt5 of the same for the same).

 

The Tea Party of this time is not the the Boston Tea Party of 1773. It is a spoiler party to lure more people into the political system. The Tea Party voters could be advised to vote republican party if the third presidential candidate tells them (could happen if elections near), or you will see a political USA split into three large political groups post 6-11, and finally they will bring these masses of voters behind the republican party (TP + rep = large majority)
It's all about having a large majority of the people cast their vote (give away their power) on a single party, so the system can reach absolute power one day.

 

Look up Bill whittle's 'what we believe in' videos on his channel on youtube, it sums up the beliefs of the tea party very well. Really changed me politically

 

tea party is small government capitalism party, who believe that with lower governmetn spending, as usa constitution was desgined, leads to lower prices, higher paychecks, and more production and wealth for all. This is what they strive for against corruption in republican and democrat party. Since democrats want bigger governmetn spenmding so they have more loot to give their friends in corruption they are msotly the enemy of tea party.

 

Tea Party is where you pour brown stuff into a hole.

Title of Book, American Hole

 

google tom woods or peter schiff or gary johnson or ron paul or on youtube too

mises.org

tea party simply believes when you reduce taxes from say 50 to 15, then your paycheck goes from 50 to 85, and all the inflation stops, so you pay less for things, and everyone is richer

You also get rid of curbs to production and stop paying people to sit on butt.

win win

www.fairtax.org is another awesome idea

vote anything but democrat

fed also hurts everything by causing inflation and causing the bubbles

when bad companies go outa business its great for everyone since the assets get bought up by winner who did well and were smarter

fed reverses this nad makes everythign more expensive

I also reccomend replacing lawyers with software lawyers are a deadweight loss

 

very informative. folks ty for your answers.