Ok now, please don’t tell my wife but I do get a kick out of her enthusiasm to participate in those high tea events that often pop up when we are away on vacation, such as on a cruise, or possibly the hotel where we might be staying. She will always ask me if I would like to join her, but I always decline. Just can’t see myself sitting there sipping tea and eating cookies in the afternoon when there has to be something more exciting to do at that time, at least in my mind!
Up until the past year or so the only exciting tea party that I could recall taking place occurred back in mid December 1773 on Griffin’s wharf in the port of Boston. Disgruntled colonists were “fed up” with the tax imposed by Parliament, in the motherland, on one of their favorite commodities, tea, imported from the East India Company. So they took their frustration out in what came to be known as the Boston Tea Party, when every crate of tea on board three ships was thrown into the harbor. Now that was a stirring event!
So I admit that I have been hearing quite a bit about tea parties being conducted throughout the U.S. in the news for some time now and it has been drawing more of my attention. Personally, I wanted to understand where the moniker of tea party actually originated for this political phenomenon. Following an internet trail I seem to have traced the origin back to some commentary in February 2009 by the CNBC news commentator named Rick Santelli, who is based in Chicago, and typically broadcasts from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He conducted an emotional three minute outburst on the floor of the exchange in response to President Obama’s plans for $275 billion in deficit financed homeowner bailouts. He went on to say that “we’re thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July.” Those comments appear to be the birth of the modern day political revolution where so many people began to take up a battle cry of it’s time to take America back from the mainstream politicians.
By April 15, 2009 there were 115 cities signed up for a nationwide Tax Day Tea Party protest. Momentum has been building ever since, particularly when the Obama Administration and the Democratically lead Congress passed Health Care Reform. Various national bus tours have been organized and centered around what has become known as the Tea Party Express. Their website advocates that politicians in Washington have failed the people in a variety of ways and that the people, instead of quietly going away, will make their voices heard in the best way that they know how. As their slogan reads on the website Just Vote Them Out.
From their perspective the dividends of the movement are beginning to be paid out. Early primaries are reflecting a lack of support for incumbents. While the movement seems to be Republican driven at the outset, I do not believe that the party should take solace in the thought that the midterm elections will be a shoo-in for taking back the majority position in the Congress. I think that all incumbent candidates, regardless of what side of the aisle they sit on will have a difficult time to justify their continued presence in Washington through reelection. Mainstream America wants real change just like the colonists did back at the Boston Tea Party.
With the tea movement really taking hold I might even have to think again about not joining my wife the next time she says “ do you want to do high tea with me?” It just might be an exciting time after all!
