Instapundit links to articles on the third anniversary of the Tea Party movement, when the first rallies were held.
I attribute the rise to the rant earlier in February 2009 by Rick Santelli.
I can watch this over and over again without getting tired of it. It’s more true today than three years ago.
Update: Leslie Eastman, And So it Begins: IRS Targets Tea Party Groups for “Special Attention”!
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not to sharpshoot, but werent the first rallies 5 years ago?
No. The first formal “tea party rallies” that were organized on a nationwide basis occurred on Feb. 27, 2009. I know, I organized one in San Diego. Check here for a reflection on some good times: http://templeofmut.wordpress.com/2009/02/28/san-diego-tea-party/
ah, the “national” distinction is key.
There seems to be some activity between the IRS and many of the Tea Party organizations regarding 501(c)(4) status.
In January and February of this year, the Internal Revenue Service began sending out letters to various local Tea Parties across the country. Mailed from the same Cincinnati, Ohio IRS office, these letters have reached Tea Parties in Virginia, Hawaii, Ohio, and Texas (we are hearing of more daily). There are several common threads to these letters: all are requesting more information from these independent Tea Parties in regard to their nonprofit 501(c)(4) applications (for this type of nonprofit, donations are not deductible). While some of the requests are reasonable, much of them are strikingly onerous and, dare I say, Orwellian in nature.
There apparently is a conference call tomorrow night at 6PM to coordinate a response.
The TEA Party movement is not dead, obsolete, or irrelevant.
It is still evolving, and this Spring I think we’ll see a new iteration.
3 years ago on April 15th we showed up on the Capitol Steps in St. Paul, MN.
Everyone looked at each other in a half-dazed way. We didn’t know why we were there, we just HAD to come.
Security guy told me it was the largest crowd to ever appear on the Capitol grounds(about 5000).
The media said, “A few hundred people showed up” or something like that.
I don’t know if there is another “rally” this year, but I do know many people working behind the scenes.
We ain’t dead.
We’re taking action.
of course the Tea Party should still be relevant but if they are voting en masse for Rick Santorum, they’ve lost their focus. Gingrich is the only one who has consistently gave the movement kudos and also shown respect and admiration for Gov. Sarah Palin while even taking some advice from her like focusing on energy. I hope in some of these Super Tuesday states there is a shift or I give up on finding any rationality in voting.
It does look like Romney is going to pull out a win in Michigan-absentee ballots are going in his favor very heavily and he is way ahead in Arizona. The other states are hard to tell. It looks like Santorum’s surge may have peaked and is coming back down-let’s hope so and Gingrich can get back in the game and finish this up.
They don’t vote “en masse” for anything.
There are groups all over the country, and they are all different, and as far as I’ve seen, the Tea Party leadership do not tell you who to vote for.
Oh, except that dick Dick Army, who should keep his trap shut.
Don’t be so hard on Dick.
He’s old school.
He thought every “idea” needed a spokesman, a fund raising mechanism, and a Washington lobby to advance.
That “endowed by our Creator” thingy went right over his head..
Good one, Browndog.
I am co-chairman for a TP group in eastern NC. Our demographics are, roughly: 50% GOP/30% Indy/20% Dem. 70% white/20% black/10% Lumbee.
And no, we don’t tell people how to vote. They’d stone us if we tried.
I didn’t say they were telling people who to vote for. But they are in fact in states currently being polled like AZ, MI and OH, going overwhelmingly for Santorum. I don’t know what you would call it other than en masse.
How are you coming to the assumption that they’re all voting for Santorum? I’m a tea partier and I voted for Newt. One of my friends(also tea party) loved Herman Cain and is now voting for Newt.
I’m just saying that you are somehow assuming that tea party people all think the same. They don’t.
My group was split mostly between Newt and Cain early on. Now we’re (guessing here) about 60% Newt, 30% Santorum, 10% Romney. If we have a single Ron Paul supporter, I’m unaware of it.
I saw these two videos of Newt and Santorum on PoliticJim.com (I love that site) here:
http://www.politijim.com/2012/02/objectively-comparing-mitt-rick-and_25.html
The Youtube videos are:
http://youtu.be/1vKr95e5aIE
http://youtu.be/P8smmN5QWf8
(Santorum’s statements are not edited here to show the originating question about libertarianism, but does clearly show him criticizing the tea party via that element, saying NOTHING to support it, and supporting the RINO McConnell candidate against the Tea Party candidate.)
First time poster, long-time lurker…
Ditto on Newt being the TP candidate.
Drudge headline has Newt (correctly) calling out Santorum as Big Labor Repub.
But GOPE’s Romneycare must be stopped and then take down the marxist muslim in OUR house.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TEA PARTY. Here’s your IRS AUDIT Package. Hugs & Kisses – Barak Obama.
(On a positive not, Tea Party groups are already planning a conference call to organize a response).
i think the administration might have poked a hornets nest on this one.
#1, Home mortgage loan rates, variable or fixed, are not the the only thing that affects the individual’s monthly mortgage payment. The State, City, and County add on, pile on their taxes so much that sometimes, like in Calif and other high tax rate States, make the payment higher than the actual mortgage is itself. In my case in Calif, they doubled my home mortgage payment after 3 years in the 1990’s, of which I could no longer afford it, and had to sell the house.
#2, The Tea Party is not a political party. It is entity – a vehicle, by which the majority American people can voice their dissent on the politicians in Washington DC, and elsewhere in the nation, whereby “We the People”, are the true power in Washington DC and America, not the politicians. The Tea Party has been in America since 1773, and will always be in America, period.
State laws vary, but in Wisconsin, the Campaign Finance law requires organizations spending as little as $25 in support of a candidate must register with the state and local governments.
If you don’t, you can usually expect a visit from the Sheriff, set upon you by the opposing political party.
I know, because it happened to me.
Let us hope that 501(c) status is not the only laws considered by the TEA Party leaders.
The RNC has chosen to ignore the Tea Party for the most part. The country is doomed unless it deals with its drunken sailor fiscal policy, so the issues won’t go away, nor will the Tea Party. As we sink into the sea of debt, the relevance of the Tea Party will become increasingly obvious.
“We could say they spend like drunken sailors, but that would be unfair to drunken sailors. Drunken Sailors are spending their OWN money”. ~ Ronald Reagan
This was the moment the Tea Party Movement was born.
Funny, looking back at the weeks and months that followed the “Santelli Rant”, as tea party groups were forming, and Americans seemed to come out of the woodwork (Primarily housewives) to demand traditional American values be upheld…
-To be seen, and not ignored via email or letter-
….I was more optimistic about America’s future than I am today.
Aw, Browndog, you sound like me a week or so ago.
We will prevail, buddy!
Just hang in their and have a little faith.
heh-
Your comment cracked a smile, and lifted my spirits.
Thank-you.
Damn it, I meant to spell “there”.
My old English teacher would yell at me for that one.
Hang in there Browndog! What the democrats, media, and apparently the establishment have not figured out is the Tea Party is the voters. Fall 2010, when they said the tea party was dead, we voted and brought the largest Republican on local, state, and federal combined landslide since the 1940’s.
We have not slumped back to our couches. We are furious with the Republicans establishment for trying to force their guy on us. We are refusing to go along with their plan and are still fighting their pick way longer than they thought we would. If you watch carefully through the local news, the foreign news, blogs, you will see despite the media’s silence about the Tea Party, We are still here. And they will hear from us again in November.
But, but, but… Everyone says that Occupy Wall Street is “just like” the Tea Party.
I shudder to think…
I love Santelli and give him a lot of credit for putting a name on the Tea Party movement. But the grass roots resistance started long before his famous rant. It took off in a big way in 2006 in protest against the Bush/Kennedy/McCain amnesty bills. We “sandblasted” DC several times with our e-mails, faxes, and phone calls. They we actually overwhelmed their communications systems several times and it worked.
We weren’t known as the Tea Party back then. We were known as nativists, bigots and racists. Our fiercest and more virulent attackers came from the GOP, the very same people who today insist on waging war on conservatives, particularly Tea Party conservatives/other, rather than allow us to sit at the table.
Santelli got credit because his call for a Tea Party-style reaction was already happening and he put it on the map with a name. He certainly deserves credit for giving it a big boost forward.
Wodiej-” Gingrich is the only one who has consistently gave the movement kudos and also shown respect and admiration for Gov. Sarah Palin while even taking some advice from her like focusing on energy. I hope in some of these Super Tuesday states there is a shift or I give up on finding any rationality in voting”- couldn’t agree with you more. He also did more than throw kudos their way, he helped 2010 Tea Party candidates by not only showing them how to run campaigns, but also how to win a campaign. HE WAS ONE OF THE LEADERS TO HELP BRING IN THE WAVE OF REPUBLICANS IN THE 2010 ELECTIONS. Go figure, the guy who put how many Repubs. in office in the 90’s could repeat another historic wave of Repubs. being elected again IN 2010. Gingrich was with the Tea Party movement early on with Palin. Why do you think she likes him so much. They’ve worked together before, and trust me that kind of team (Gingrich/Palin)can win BIG AGAIN. I pray that Palin will now endorse, (since all are now vetted), and give Newt the big WOW Factor & maybe do a Tea Party rally with him b4 super tues. If Tea Partiers are true to wanting cuts in spending (Santorum loves his pork), want less govt. in their lives (Santorum’s extreme on many Religious beliefs & he supports some govt. involvement there as well.), and want someone with a proven ability to be conservative when elected, (I could go on for hours on how Santorum isn’t a conservative, but you all should know by now), than NEWT is your only HOPE.
wow, thanks for the info on Gingrich and helping Palin and the TP in 2010. Had no idea. Good stuff to pass along.
Another reason the TEA Party is active: the current administration: see this ad taken out by W. J. Flynn, M.D. – via I Own the World.
http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=121993
I might do a similar thing. If all business owners posted that information, it might put a face on this monster and wake some people up. When Obama did his fly-over NYC for his photo op, one of the ways I made it real to my kids was to point out that his stunt cost more money than our entire neighborhood paid in taxes annually. It helped bring it home to them.
What, no Paulbots coming around to insist it was My Favorite Martian who started the Tea Party?
I have seen the Paul supporters call him the “Grandfather of the Teaparty” I don’t know why though! I never saw him saying anything regarding the Teaparty, however, I guess I could have missed it since I am not one to go looking for things regarding Ron Paul.
I’m praying real hard that Sarah Palin will come out and endorse Newt, soon. There’s no time to waste!
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