Tea Party

A group of musicians were discussing the faults of a not too popular colleague when trumpeter/cornetist Bobby Hackett commented “at least he’s got us talking about him.” The same can be said about the Tea Party so allow me to join the crowd.

Its name is obviously intended to be identified with the Spirit of ’76, specifically the Boston Tea Party. In case anyone misses the point, some of its more enthusiastic members dress in colonial garments for possible TV coverage. The colonists’ battle cry that brought on the Boston Tea Party was “no taxation without representation.” The tea dumped into Boston Harbor was among the many commodities subject to taxation imposed unilaterally by the British Parliament. 

Here’s where the analogy breaks down. The taxes now being protested were made law by duly elected officials in our national legislature, Congress. One of the two Congressional branches is known as the House of Representatives. If as I suspect the protestors’ candidates of choice haven’t fared well lately it was because more voters preferred an alternative. I’ll venture a guess that most of the noise is coming from people who voted overwhelmingly for the president who signed these tax laws. Another guess is that most of their favorites since that vote were losers.    
  

The Tea Party movement coalesced in the weeks prior to April 15, 2009. It’s significant that the taxes being protested then came from the same tax code as the previous year’s which was approved by the previous president. Skeptical minds might conclude that Obama’s political party and, I hate to say it again, his ancestry made paying taxes more onerous to many who voted against him.

Much of the anger is allegedly directed not only at paying taxes, but at the way the money will be allocated. Granted, an argument can and is being made against spending to stimulate the economy in hope of creating jobs. But it rings hollow when made by people who had no problem financing a war in Iraq, fought for reasons yet to be disclosed.   

Political movements of historical consequence; the American Revolution, revolutions in France and Russia, the rise of the Third Reich and the New Deal, were driven by clearly identifiable causes. The Tea Party is something else, an aspiring political movement in search of a cause. Anger, by itself, is not a cause.