Tea Party movement
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This article is about the Tea Party movement. For the protest events themselves, see Tea Party protests.
Tea Party protesters fill the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol and the National Mall on September 12, 2009.The Tea Party movement is a populist political movement in the United States that emerged in 2009 through a series of locally and nationally-coordinated protests.[1][2][3] The protests were partially in response to several Federal laws: the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008,[4] the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,[5][6] and a series of health care reform bills.[7]
The name "Tea Party" is a reference to the Boston Tea Party of 1773—a protest by American colonists against various acts by the British Government which, among other things, attempted to establish a monopoly on the importation of tea into the colonies by giving a cut on re-importation tax imposed on the East India Company.[8] Tea Party protests have invoked themes, images, and slogans similar to those used during the pre-revolutionary period in American history.[9][10][11]
Contents [hide]
1 Background and history
1.1 First local protests
1.2 First national Tea Party protests
1.3 Tea Party symbol
2 Composition of the movement
3 Tea Party agenda "Contract from America"
4 Effects on 2010 mid-term election cycle
4.1 Obama administration responses
5 Public opinion polls and demographics
5.1 Political affiliation
5.2 Opinion polls focusing on Tea Party supporters
5.3 Other commentaries on the movement
6 Allegations of media coverage bias
7 Controversies
7.1 Allegation of being an Astroturfed movement
7.2 Accusations of Racism
7.3 Dale Robertson sign
7.4 Slurs at the Health Care protests
7.5 Springboro Tea Party's Twitter incident
7.6 Monkey God
7.7 Other Controversies
7.8 Use of term "teabagger"
8 See also
9 References
10 Further reading
11 External links
Tea Party movement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
