What Is the Tea Party? – Sewing Machines Los Angeles

Over the past few years, the Tea Party movement has been gaining a lot of traction in the American political system. As a grassroots political movement, a lot of voters have noticed faction’s candidates seemingly coming out of nowhere to appear on ballots in many elections around the country. So what exactly is the Tea Party, and what is their political stance

A Quick History and Timeline

Most political commentators and historians have pinpointed the party’s beginnings around the start of 2009, right after the election cycle of 2008. The name of the group is an allusion to the Boston Tea Party of 1773, where protestors of a British tax on tea dumped tea from Britain into Boston harbor. A number of protests during 2009 and 2010 started to give the movement some momentum in voters. Many of the people at the protests were rallying for more limited government, less taxation, and lobbying for states’ rights. Around February of 2009 the group really started to take hold, and by the 2010 elections, candidates were officially on some ballots around the country. While the faction isn’t considered a national party, many presidential candidates – most notably Michelle Bachmann, having started the Tea Party Caucus – have called themselves Tea Party candidates, though they participate in Republican debates. In fact, most of the associated candidates have aligned themselves with the Republican Party.

What Does the Group and Its Members Believe?

Much like any political movement, the Tea Party has stances on many political issues. While the party does believe in the aforementioned ideas of less taxation and limited government, members of the group also do not support same-sex marriage, while also favoring stricter measurements against illegal immigration. Recent polls as well as the 2010 midterm elections seem to also suggest that a growing majority of the group and vision’s supporters are becoming skeptics in regard to global warming. Major supporters of the party put together an agenda of their ideas called the “Contract from America” that included ideas such as balancing the federal budget, identifying the constitutionality of new laws, as well as limiting growth with regards to federal spending.

Since its beginnings in 2009, the Tea Party has gained some major momentum in the United States, becoming a real force in American politics. Americans who are finding the two parties already not to their liking are rallying behind the group’s ideas as new form of protest, while showing that they have a real voice in government by electing those who back their ideas. With more voters joining their ranks every year, the Tea Party is looking to become even more of a viable voice in the upcoming election.