Welcome Tea Party Patriots…

The original Boston Tea Party movement began on December 16, 1773 when Patriots dressed as Indians boarded three ships that were holding tea for the colonies. The tea was heavily taxed and the colonists refused to allow it to be landed. They threw the tea chests creating the largest Tea Party ever seen. More direct action was to follow

On a bright April Morning in 1775 as the sun was rising as 80 brave Patriots formed a double line on the village green of Lexington, Massachusetts. They were there to protect their families, their homes and their way of life. Facing them were the soldiers of the British Army, considered the foremost military force in the world. The British troops had marched 25 miles from Boston to seize the Patriots gunpowder and shot. The Patriot commander, Captain John Parker, told his men, ”Stand your ground; don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.” In a burst of British gunfire eight Patriots were killed and the rest dispersed. Finding no powder or shot, the British regulars continued to Concord searching for the Patriots military supplies. Meanwhile, the countryside was roused to action. Thousands of Patriots began to assemble and move toward Concord Bridge. The words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere tells the story many times better than I can:

You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,—
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.

In 2009 American Patriots stood on their village greens to face off with a new foe: their own government. Adopting the name Tea Party to both commemorate the Boston Tea Party and the acronym for “Taxed Enough Already”, the movement quickly spread across America. The Tea Party Movement is not a political party. It is rather a movement of like-minded individuals united in a desire for reduced government spending, lower taxes, reducing the national debt, eliminating the deficit and adherence to the United States Constitution.

Over the past several years the Tea Party Movement has established chapters in every state with a loose confederation of local and national committees. In many respects the movement resembles the colonial-era Committees of Correspondence. Tea Party caucuses have been established in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Nationally known politicians have become closely associated the Tea Party Movement.

With this rapid growth has come an avalanche of vituperation from many areas of the left. We have been called terrorists, hobbits and worse. Charges of racism have been leveled by members of Congress. Because of the Tea Party’s opposition to Obamacare we have been accused of throwing “grandma” out of nursing homes and other healthcare facilities.

Who are the members of the Tea Parties across America? Mostly, they’re people who are in the middle class of society. They are mainly white, slightly more are males, married, older than 45, more conservative than the general population, likely to be more wealthy and have more education. One Gallup poll found that other than gender, income and politics, self-described Tea Party members were demographically similar to the population as a whole.

If you believe in a United States of personal freedom, limited government, low taxes and belief in the rule of law welcome to the Tea Party Movement.