I’ve tried to avoid all Tea Party talk, but that doesn’t mean I won’t re-post someone smarter than me talking about their misguided co-opting of a historical movement vastly more meaningful than theirs. From Chuck McCarthy:

Dear Tea Party People, 

Do you know what the Boston Tea Party was really about? Do you know what your party is really about? 

The Boston Tea Party had nothing to do with taxes being raised. Taxes were not raised at all. In fact, taxes were waived, lowering the cost of tea. The British upset colonists by lowering the cost of tea. They upset colonial business men who had stakes in colonial tea companies, or who feared that the British would make similar moves with other commodities. 

What happened at the Boston Tea Party raised the cost of tea for colonists.

If you really wanted to be true to your name, you would head down to your local gas station and pour all the foreign gas on the ground, you would go to your nearest Ikea and steal all the screws from furniture kits, and you would head over to your Walmart and burn it down. You would try to raise import taxes, forcing Americans to pay more for everyday goods, so as to give American factories and workers a level playing field with those in China. 

You won’t do these things though, because you are just puppets. You are being used to stop any change in any direction, left or right, because an ineffective government is good for business. 

So, in a way, The Tea Party is a perfect name, but not for the reasons you think. 

Thanks,

Chuck McCarthy