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The Tea Party protests are a series of organized protests across the United States, most of which have developed into nationally coordinated events. The protesters are, among other things, angry about the growth of the federal government - particularly to the economic policies of President Barack Obama, including the Homeowners Affordability and Stability Plan, the Troubled Assets Relief Program, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009. The name "Tea Party" is a reference to the Boston Tea Party, and the protests have sought to evoke images, slogans, and themes from the American Revolution.

Many of the protests were held on April 15, 2009 to coincide with the annual U.S. deadline for submitting tax returns. A number of counter-protests were held on the same day to show support for Obama's economic plans and actions.

History

On October 25, 2007, work began among Ron Paul's supporters to commemorate the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, starting with the Web-site TeaParty07.com. On December 16, 2007, Ron Paul supporters re-enacted the dumping of tea into Boston Harbor by tossing banners that read "Tyranny" and "No Taxation Without Representation" into boxes that were in the harbor. Ron Paul supporters also gathered in several other cities as part of the Tea Party re-enactment, including Strasbourg, France, Santa Monica, California, Maui, Hawaii, and Freeport and Austin, Texas. These events significantly boosted Ron Paul's support during the 2008 Ron Paul presidential campaign.

On January 27, 2009 conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh criticized the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, saying

This 'porkulus' bill is designed to repair the Democratic Party's power losses from the 1990s forward, and to cement the party's majority power for decades.

While the term Porculus is not a new term, typically in reference to pork barrel spending or otherwise known as Earmarks, it proved popular with conservative politicians and commentators, who began to unify in opposition against "stimulus spending" after the 2008 General Election.

A blogger known as "Liberty Belle" called for and organized a "porculus" protest of 2009 which took place on February 16 in Seattle, Washington and attracted "dozens" of people.

A protest was held in Denver on February 17 and a protest in Mesa, Arizona on February 18 brought 500 protesters.

By February 19, 2009, in a broadcast from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade, CNBC market commentator Rick Santelli, criticized the government plan to refinance mortgages as "promoting bad behavior", and raised the possibility of a "Chicago Tea Party". In response to Santelli, websites such as ChicagoTeaParty.com, registered in August 2008 by Chicago radio producer Zack Christenson, was live within twelve hours. About 10 hours after Santelli's remarks, reTeaParty.com was bought to coordinate Tea Parties scheduled for July 4, and as of March 4, was reported to be receiving 11,000 visitors a day. Bob Basso's portrayal of Thomas Paine on Glenn Beck's Fox News show and on YouTube calling for a Second American Revolution also played a role in spreading the protests.

Allegations of "astroturfing"

Allegations of "astroturfing" first surfaced in a Playboy article in March 2009. The article was removed from the website after possible libel claims, but no legal action materialised and the authors repeated and elaborated the allegations elsewhere, and considered themselves vindicated by the responses of FreedomWorks and of Rick Santelli.

In early April 2009, the liberal blog Think Progress stated that most of the 2009 protests were conservative lobbyist created "astroturf" projects and not spontaneous grassroots protests as their participants say. Instead, an article stated that the protests are nationally coordinated and organized by the conservative lobbying groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks. Liberal economist Paul Krugman picked up the story in his April 12 New York Times column, writing that:

The tea parties don’t represent a spontaneous outpouring of public sentiment. They’re AstroTurf (fake grass roots) events, manufactured by the usual suspects. In particular, a key role is being played by FreedomWorks, an organization run by Richard Armey, the former House majority leader, and supported by the usual group of right-wing billionaires. And the parties are, of course, being promoted heavily by Fox News.

The Indypendent covered the story as well the following day. On April 14, Steven Leser reported on the liberal website OpEdNews that the domain name "chicagoteaparty.com" was registered during the 2008 presidential campaign by "a right wing radio talk show host ... with ties to several major Republican think tanks". On April 15, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi leveled accusations of astroturfing as well, stating:

This initiative is funded by the high end... it's not really a grassroots movement. It's astroturf by some of the wealthiest people in America to keep the focus on tax cuts for the rich instead of for the great middle class.

On the same day, liberal MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said:

One of the controversies about the teabaggers is the fact that insider D.C. corporate-funded PR shops and lobbying groups have done a lot of the organizing and promotion for these events. That‘s controversial because it‘s astroturfing. It‘s disguising a formal top-down organized paid for things as if it‘s some spontaneous grassroots event.

Responses

Participants vehemently deny the astroturfing charge. According to Atlantic Monthly, the three main groups that provide guidance and organization for the protests—FreedomWorks, dontGO, and Americans for Prosperity—state that the demonstrations are an organic movement. Americans For Prosperity displays a set of "talking points" for participants. Organizer Glenn Reynolds has argued in The New York Post that:

These aren't the usual semiprofessional protesters who attend antiwar and pro-union marches. These are people with real jobs; most have never attended a protest march before. They represent a kind of energy that our politics hasn't seen lately, and an influx of new activists.

Bridgett Wagner of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has compared the protests to the tax revolts of the 1970s and 1980s, which included the successful Proposition 13 in California that capped property taxes. Jeremi Suri, a history professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, viewed them as "not dissimilar from what we had in 2003 with the anti-war protests, where a lot of people were uncomfortable with the war, but also uncomfortable with the anti-war position, recognizing there are terrorists out there."

Positions and goals

According to USA Today, most protesters have the overall goal of pressuring Congress and state governments to "reject government spending as a way out of the recession" and to "build an anti-spending coalition around regular taxpayers". Aside from spending by the Obama administration, the paper claims that the activists also oppose the spending the Bush administration set in place. Support for the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 is also an issue raised in the Tea Parties.

Protest organizer and co-creator of dontGo Eric Odom has argued that "This is a protest that has been in government the last few years... Bush himself was guilty of socialist policies." He also said of the Republican Party that "It’s obvious they’re trying to ride on the brand that we created... It’s somewhat insulting." His group has turned down a request from Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele to speak at its Chicago protest. After the denial, the Republican National Committee released a statement saying that "They're just having a little fun."

Events

Timeline

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Turnout

April 15 was the date of the largest number of tea parties, with demonstrations reported to be occurring in more than 750 cities. Actual numbers of protesters varied from location to location. Statistican and liberal political activist Nate Silver noted the largest protests were in capitals and large cities, while many others had little or no reliable media coverage and were not included. He reported cumulative crowd size from various newspapers to be around 311,460 for 346 cities, including essentially all large cities and state capitals. Christian Science Monitor has stated that "By some estimates, over half a million Americans took to the streets", which would make the protests the largest since March 25, 2006, where 750,000 protested in support of rights and protections for immigrants. It also stated that "Critics doubt the higher estimates of the turnout, and say the numbers represent the extreme right rather than a burgeoning political counterpoint to President Obama and current Washington policies."

Incidents

A protest by several hundred people outside the White House was moved after a box of tea bags was hurled over its fence. Police sealed off the area and evacuated some people.

Responses

Obama made a speech to the nation on April 15 in which he did not expressly mention the "tea party" critics of his program. He pointed out that he had already achieved enactment of an economic-recovery package with tax cuts that included "the most American workers ever to get a tax cut".

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich political activist group American Solutions supports the protests, saying on its website that they are "our chance to communicate our anger and opposition to the irresponsible policies of politicians in Washington who have failed to solve problems." Gingrich spoke at the New York City protest on April 15. The Governor of Texas Rick Perry attended a rally in Austin, Texas. He has also discussed the protests on YouTube. Perry fielded a question at the rally about Texas secession, answering:

There's a lot of different scenarios. We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that? But Texas is a very unique place, and we're a pretty independent lot to boot.

Talk show host Leslie Marshall has remarked, in reference to the original Boston Tea Party, that "You have to look at our history. The reason these people revolted is they didn't want to pay taxes that were not presented by elected officials... Last time I checked, Obama's not taxing you to death — he is spending to stimulate the economy and he is an elected official." Political commentator Bob Cesca commented that "your neighbor's mortgage is your problem. Just watch your property values plummet as soon as there's just one foreclosure on your block." Historian Bruce Bartlett, a former treasury official in the Bush administration, argued in Forbes that higher taxes may not be as bad as they seem, writing that "Higher taxes may pay for services that people value and thus are not as burdensome as they might appear at first glance."

Rick Santelli has said, "I think that this tea party phenomenon is steeped in American culture and steeped in American notion to get involved with what’s going on with our government. I haven’t organized. I’m going to have to work to pay my taxes, so I’m not going to be able to get away today. But, I have to tell you — I’m pretty proud of this." Former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee said that the events were "mostly an honest spontaneous effort...to express their outrage at government hubris".

On April 19, Senior White House Advisor David Axelrod was asked about the tea party protests. He said "I think any time that you have severe economic conditions, there is always an element of disaffection that can mutate into something that’s unhealthy." and "The thing that bewilders me is this President just cut taxes for ninety five percent of the American people. So I think the tea bags should be directed elsewhere, because he certainly understands the burden that people face."

Media coverage of events

The protests have attracted support from and been promoted by commentators such as Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck, and Glenn Reynolds, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, rock guitarist and political activist Ted Nugent, country musician John Rich, former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee and syndicated radio host Neal Boortz, The protests have been derided by commentators such as Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, and David Shuster, talk show host Leslie Marshall, political commentator Bob Cesca, economist Paul Krugman, Andrew Sullivan, public policy advocacy group MoveOn.org, and Thomas Frank.

Media Matters for America, a liberal media watchdog organization, argued that the Fox News Network actively promoted the tea parties and encouraged viewers to get involved with them instead of neutrally covering them. The group pointed to several examples, including an episode of Glenn Beck's show in which an on-air graphic referred to some of the protests as "FNC Tax Day Tea Parties". Media Matters president, Eric Burns, wrote an open letter to Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace asking him to "publicly address recent actions by Fox News personalities that unambiguously cross the line separating news and legitimate commentary from political activism and demagoguery."

Media Matters pointed out that Fox News "aired at least 107 commercial promotions for their coverage of the tea party protests" in the ten days leading up to the April 15 protests. Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly dismissed accusations of promotion by saying the network promoted coverage of the event which he felt was newsworthy while the other networks ignored. On April 12, Howard Kurtz said on CNN "Fox News gets on board in a big way with this week's tea party protests." and "The folks at Fox News ... are firmly in favor of tea parties." On April 15, he said "I don't think I've ever seen a news network throw its weight behind a protest like we are seeing in the past few weeks with FOX and these tea parties." Liberal political commentator Rachel Maddow said "The unofficial Republican Party media outlet, Fox News Channel, has explicitly endorsed these events." Liberal political commentator Keith Olbermann said "Despite claiming neutrality on those policies and the teabag movement itself, FOX has whipped up excitement for the parties, recruiting viewers to come out, guaranteeing huge outdoor gatherings, spilling into the streets, choking off traffic with all their teabagging." Other commentators documented the number of racially offensive signs at the protests and noted their appeal to white nationalists.Dan Harris said on ABC World News that the protests were "cheered on by Fox News."

Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog organization, argued that television networks CNN and MSNBC provided biased coverage of the tea parties. The MRC pointed to "juvenile jokes" about protesters made by Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. It also argued that the networks paid little attention to the protests overall, which the MRC's vice president called "journalism by censorship". In an April 15 protest, CNN correspondent Susan Roesgen got into an argument with a protester and then suggested that that event was "anti-government," "anti-CNN," "promoted by the right-wing conservative Fox News" and "not really family viewing." The incident was criticized by the MRC's news blog, Boston Herald columnist Michael Graham, as well as by other conservative blogs. In response, a Fox News spokesperson remarked that "Judging by their lack of ratings, everyone seems to be anti-CNN." A CNN spokesperson later said, "She was doing her job, and called it like she saw it." James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times also claimed that MSNBC commentators were overwhelming giving negative coverage of the protest. The Augusta Chronicle editorial staff described CNN and MSNBC's coverage as "disgusting", "profane", "reprehensible", and "sickening." Howard Kurtz has said that, "These hosts said little or nothing about the huge deficits run up by President Bush, but Barack Obama's budget and tax plans have driven them to tea. On the other hand, CNN and MSNBC may have dropped the ball by all but ignoring the protests."

Satirists Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert both joked about the tea parties on their respective April 15 comedy show airings. Both of them poked fun at what they saw as ironies and hypocritical logic from the protests; in particular, they mocked protesters for buying a million bags of tea to protest wasteful spending. Both comedy segments mocked the Fox News coverage of the events.

"Teabagging"

Background

Some commentators and event organizers have labeled the Tea Party protests the "teabag" or "teabagging" parties or protests. Teabagging has long had another meaning, which refers to a sexual practice in which a man's testicles are placed into someone else's mouth or on their face.

Reports have traced the teabagging story back to a photograph David Weigel of The Washington Independent took at a late February rally. The photograph shows a protester holding up a sign that read "Tea Bag the Liberal Dems Before They Tea Bag You". A website which helped organize events on July 4, reteaparty.com, encouraged people to "Tea Bag the Fools in D.C." Griff Jenkins, a reporter for Fox News, said demonstrators were going to "teabag the White House," and quoted the website by encouraging viewers to "Teabag the fools in D.C."

On April 13, MSNBC's David Shuster accused the protesters of "going nuts for it" and "whip out the festivities"; wanting to "give President Obama a strong tongue-lashing and lick government spending." He argued that "the people who came up with it are a familiar circle of Republicans including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, both of whom have firm support from right wing financiers and lobbyists." and that "the Fox News Channel, including Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, both are looking forward to an up close and personal taste of teabagging themselves." He concluded, saying that "If you are planning simultaneous teabagging all around the country, you're going to need a Dick Armey." On April 13, 14, and 15 MSNBC's Rachel Maddow made similar remarks. On April 14 and 15, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann made remarks in the same vein and on April 15 CNN's Anderson Cooper said "It's hard to talk when you're tea-bagging."

Responses

Fox News responded by calling the remarks "frat house humor" and accusing MSNBC's David Shuster of weaving "a tapestry of 'Animal House' humor." Fox News further compared MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and Air America's Ana Marie Cox to Beavis and Butt-head. Max Pappas, Public Policy Vice President of national organizer FreedomWorks, called the comments a "shame." Jeff Poor, writing for right-wing media watchdog NewsBusters, labeled the teabagging references as "dirty", "juvenile", and "low brow." Conservative Media Research Center President Brent Bozell wrote that CNN and MSNBC had put on an "utterly embarrassing and crude display." He accused them of "vulgar attack-journalism", "lowly crassness", "slimy, smarmy attacks", and "sleaze-riddled condemnation". Conservative political commentator Joe Scarborough said "I'm not going to mention names of people on networks that made sexual jokes, childish sexual jokes." Conservative correspondent Paul Chesser wrote in The American Spectator that "Empty-suited Anderson Cooper fulfilled dreams of one-day fitting in with dreamboat Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, as he cracked gay-themed "teabagger" jokes about the events."

As a warning to participants of the protests, national organizer FreedomWorks issued a flyer stating

The term teabagging has strong sexual connotations. Beware of anyone with a camera asking you if you are a "teabagger" or enjoy "teabagging" or similar leading questions — they are trying to make a fool of you.

Public opinion

An April 20, 2009 report on a telephone survery of 1000 people conducted by Rasmussen Reports said that 51% of Americans had a favorable view of the protests. Margin of error +/-3%.

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114. http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/04/14/schuster-dick-armey/
115. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30210576/
116. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30210708/
117. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30226660/
118. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30249515/
119. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30226451/
120. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30249444/
121. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0904/14/acd.02.html
122. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/16/cable-anchors-guests-use-tea-parties-platform-frat-house-humor/
123. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/16/cable-anchors-guests-use-tea-parties-platform-frat-house-humor/
124. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/16/cable-anchors-guests-use-tea-parties-platform-frat-house-humor/
125. http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2009/04/14/msnbc-place-low-brow-teabag-humor
126. http://www.mrc.org/press/2009/press20090416.asp
127. http://media.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTA5NTU3YTQ3ZDRhYTYwM2NkOGE0YmQwYjZmYTU4MDA=
128. http://spectator.org/archives/2009/04/20/yes-it-does
129. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/freedomworks-finally-gets-around-to-it.php
130. http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/documents/2009/04/tea-party-rally-disruptors-flyer.php?page=1
131. 51% View Tea Parties Favorably, Political Class Strongly Disagrees, April 20, 2009, Rasmussen Reports

External links

• Map showing location of April 15 protests at Google Maps

• Current events from April 2009
• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view disputes from April 2009
• 2009 in the United States
• American political movements
• Late 2000s global financial crisis
• Protests in the United States