The Mad TEA Parties of 2009 April 17, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Blogging, Etcetera, The Ether, Words, Laughing, The News, Obama!.Tags: Alice in Wonderland, Twitter, Tea party, tax, teabagging, Tenniel, Earl Grey, World Bar, Acronym
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{ The Mad Tea Party in Alice in Wonderland. By Sir John Tenniel, via Victorian Web }
{ The Boston Tea Party in, er, Boston. By Currier & Ives, via Rhapsody in Books }
{ Woman With Pig On Head in Dallas, Texas. By Matt Slocum/AP, via Yahoo News }
A Tea Party is…
a) A civil gathering of acquaintances, for the purposes of sipping Earl Grey and nibbling cucumber sandwiches (Mad Hatter optional).
b) A drunken gathering of revellers, for the purposes of a big night out at World Bar.
c) A historical gathering of American revolutionaries, for the purposes of throwing tea chests into Boston Harbour, in protest against The Tea Act of 1773, which (surprise, surprise) imposed a tax on said tea.
d) A controversial gathering of ‘radical’ anti-tax protesters, for the purposes of condemning taxes in general (and government spending, and Barack Obama, and Liberalism, and all that jazz).
e) A purple-haired afternoon stroll with Lady GaGa, apparently.
I’d never heard of Tax Day Tea Parties until, well, today. Apparently, it’s a big thing in the US, inspired by the original tax-related tea party [see (c) above]. From what I can gather — unless the media is somehow presenting a subtly skewed perspective (NO! NEVER!) — The Tax Day Tea Party phenomenon is promoted by FOX ‘News’, tainted by allegations of astroturfing, and frequented by rabid conservatives, believers in The Communist Conspiracy Theory, people who like to dress up like lunatics, and remarkably partisan dogs / small children.
On the other hand, the TEA in Tea Party is actually an acronym for Taxed Enough Already, and we know how much I love a clever acronym.
But on the OTHER other hand, my government just “stimulated” my bank balance to the tune of $900, so the chances of me being anti-tax and anti-spending are slimmer than slim.
So, to sum up, I love actual tea, but TEA sounds mad to me.
More on TEA (for noobs like me)
- “2009 Tea Party Protests” on Wikipedia (Caution: Information may change rapidly…).
- Official Tea Party Online HQ: (watch the national deficit rack up before your very eyes AND IN SCARY RED FONT TOO!!)
- Salon.com Guide to Teabagging (Caution: May contain sensible/liberal sentiment).
- #teaparty is trending on Twitter like there’s no tomorrow (and there might NOT BE, IF THE GOVERNMENT KEEPS SPENDING LIKE THIS)
The 2009 Tea Parties derived from the Campaign for Liberty… which is the continuation the 2008 Ron Paul for President campagin. A few right-wing old media outlets and neo-cons eventually picked-up on the idea and joined in… not out devotion to the US constitution, but for their own personal agenda and gain.