Throughout its history, The United States of America has had a magnitude
of social movements for civil liberties, the environment, and political
agendas. There have been a few that have started post 2000, but one that has
had a large influence on society as well as political parties is the Tea Party
Movement. This is a movement that began with many Americans in response to
taxation and has involved into a large organization that has much influence in
the Republican Party.
There have been several
theories about the origins of the Tea Party Movement. Some claim that it was
led by the Koch brothers in an attempt to keep corporations strong (Pilkington,
2010). Al Gore believes that it can be traced to tobacco industries pushing for
a grassroots movement to gain support for conservative politicians. Other
claims have been related to protests against federal laws such as the Emergency
Stabilization Act of 2008 as well as health reform bills (Barnes, 2009).
Teaparty.org simply claims that it was the founding fathers in 1773 that
started the movement with the Boston Tea Party and they are simply picking up
where they left off restoring freedom and justice in the United States of America.
Teaparty.org was created in the year 2004 and has maintained
stability through the years. When it was created, people had the idea of
reducing taxes as well as the size of government. On teaparty.org, there is “15
non-negotiable core beliefs” that are the basis for the party. This includes:
Illegal aliens are here illegally, pro-domestic employment is indispensable, a
strong military is essential, special interests must be eliminated, gun
ownership is sacred, government must be downsized, the national budget must be
balanced, deficit spending must end, bailout and stimulus plans are illegal,
reducing personal income taxes is a must, reducing business income taxes is
mandatory, political offices must be available to average citizens, intrusive
government must be stopped, English as our core language is required,
traditional family values are encouraged (teaparty.org, 2004). Although some of
these beliefs seem to contradict themselves it is the core of the Tea Party
Movement. It is definitely a long-term effort to lobby and persuade politicians
as well as citizens of the United States of America to follow these core
beliefs.
Unlike the Civil Rights Movement, The Women’s Suffrage Movement,
and multiple environmental movements of the past, the Tea Party Movement has
had a lot more access to mass media and social networking which has allowed it
to grow so rapidly. There were two Facebook pages that were created at the
start of this wave and each one has over a million followers. One page is the
Tea Party and the other is the Tea Party Patriots, which are both part of the
same movement and started in 2009. Another large benefactor of the Tea Party
Movement is Fox News.
Fox News is typically conservative, believes that liberals control
mass media and that they are the true voice of the American people claiming to
be “Fair and Balanced”. In today’s society when there is so much access and
specialized programming to attract a particular audience, I believe that if it
weren’t for this the Tea Party may have never come up off the ground since Fox
News was such a big advertiser and supporter of the Tea Party Movement.
The Tea Party that is scene throughout Facebook, Twitter, and mass
media is the group that the general American people have decided to join. The
Tea Party Patriots was able to become an official political action organization
with over 1,000 affiliated groups across the nation (teapartypatrtiots.org,
2010).
It wasn’t just social networks that helped get a name for the Tea Party
Movement. There were many public protests in Washington D.C. and other major
cities that attracted the attention of various news networks that reported on
the Tea Party Movement and the things they stood for. The most recognizable
symbol/slogan that the Tea Party Movement used repeatedly was “Don’t Tread On
Me” while using the Gadsden flag with a snake on it.
Besides getting attention in mass media and social networks, the
Tea Party Movement has had tremendous influence in the political realm. The
Republican Party continues to be shaped in extreme ways by the Tea Party in
determining nominees. As a result of their influence within the political
realm, nominees such as Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, and Richard Mourdock. In
the 2010 midterm-elections while the Tea Party Movement was strong, many voters
supported Tea Party politicians and were believed to have won many seats.
By 2012, this was no longer the case. The Tea Party had knocked
out established Republicans such as Richard Lugar who were considered moderate
meaning they weren’t conservative enough for Tea Party support. This resulted
in a big loss in multiple House of Representative races and the loss of the
Senate. Many argue that the Tea Party is beginning to run its course and if
Republicans plan to win elections they will have to disassociate the Tea Party
in order to elect more moderate candidates that can get support throughout the
country.
The Tea Party Movement was certainly beginning to lose a lot of
its thunder up until 2013 when the Internal Revenue Service was reported to
have inappropriately “flagged” Tea Party groups and other conservative groups
for review of their applications for tax-exempt status. The Internal Revenue
Service violated their policy by asking for donor lists, asked for details
about family members involvement, and asked about their social networks. This
called for an outcry and once again put Tea Party organizations in the
spotlight by claiming that President Obama was targeting them by using the IRS
to track the Tea Party Movement and dismantle them.
President Obama had claimed at the time that he was not aware of
the Internal Revenue Services’ actions and demanded that investigations of
employees of the Internal Revenue Service immediately. When Commissioner
Douglas Shulman of the IRS had to testify in front of Congress in 2012, he
denied that the groups were being targeted based on their political views, but
the Tea Party strongly disagreed. Tom Zawistowski, president of the Ohio
coalition of the Tea Party Organization, quoted, “I don’t think there’s any
question we were unfairly targeted.” (Ohlemacher, 2013)
When comparing the Tea Party Movement to other social movements in
the new millennium, there are multiple similarities. The one that has the most
similarities to the Tea Party would have to be Occupy Wall Street. Although
Occupy Wall Street has not been as politically involved as the Tea Party, it
still created a large social movement based on social media websites with the
bases of freedom in mind. Without social networking, creating web pages,
Facebook, Twitter, etc., I don’t think either one of these movements would have
had a chance to even come up off the ground. Since we have so much access to
mass media being 24-7 from several different sources as well as social network
websites, movements such as these can lift off the ground overnight.
I could certainly say that the Tea Party Movement is not my cup of
tea. Although there are many things I disagree with this organization
pertaining to Tea Party policy and politicians, it is still fascinating to see
an organization like this spring up from the ground. You certainly can’t see
many other movements in history like this because social networking was a lot
harder to do and required phone calls, letters, and town meetings versus
movements like these that could simply create a Facebook page and get national
recognition. Many people may be getting tired of the Tea Party Movement, but I
believe that this organization has been an excellent example of how a modern
grassroots organization is to develop.
Ever since the Tea Party Movement was
able to use resources like Facebook successfully, many different movements have
followed in their path including Anti-Bullying campaigns, Occupy Wall Street,
Kony 2012, Marriage Equality, etc. They may not be the voice of the American
people, but this is certainly “The American Way” when it comes to starting a
grassroots organization and researchers as well as political analysts will look
back to this group when it is long gone and make note of how fast the organization
was able to start as well as the influence it has in politics.
Bibliography
Pilkington, Ed “Americans For Prosperity Sponsors Tea Party
Workshop”. The Guardian. September
11, 2011
Altman, Alex. “The Real IRS Scandal”. Time.com. May 14, 2013
Author Unknown, Teapartypatriots.org, 2010
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