Tea Party Movement

The Tea Party movement is unlike many other social movements in that it does not have a defined founder or founding date. Most Tea Partiers agree that a rant by CNBS Business News editor Rick Santelli, broadcast in 2009 as a criticism of Obama’s policy implementations after the economic crash of 2008, was the spark of the modern Tea Party movement. Sarah Palin is a popular voice within the movement, but she is not the founder.

The Tea Party movement is a right-leaning, conservative, populist, libertarian political movement. The modern Tea Party has three main tenets: fiscal responsibility, less government and free markets. The movement is in reference to the Boston Tea Party in 1773 when tea was dumped in the harbor in protest of taxation without proper representation. Modern Tea Party protests still involve dumping various things in rivers, as well as picketing and rallying.

To find speeches regarding the Tea Party movement in this archives, search for TeaParty.