The Unprecedented Popularity Of The Tea Party Movement

By Author: Rob Thomas
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The term Tea Party has come to take on an all new meaning in America in the year 2009. Deriving their name and spirit from the original "Boston Tea Party" incident that occured in the year 1773, where colonists threw three shiploads of taxed tea from Britain into the sea, in protest of what was known as the "Tea Act"; these modern day Tea Parties are nation-wide protests by citizens, most of whom are conservatives, who participated in demonstrations in Washington, DC, and other cities, protesting government spending, the economic stimulus package and any type of tax increases. "TEA" is also meant to mean "Taxed Enough Already".
Though these events have received very low/non-existent media attention and support, they have been promoted through more modern means, namely, Twitter, blogs and the ubiqitous Facebook. Furthermore, there have been counter-protests by fervent supporters of the Obama administration as well.
In this situation, it is quite interesting to read through the facts thrown up by a recent NBC News / Wall Street Journal Survey.
Americans were asked the question "How much do you know about the ...
... Tea Party Movement?", and were asked to choose between, know a great deal about this, a fair amount, just some, very little or nothing at all. Here are the results:
Know a great deal ........................... 7
Know a fair amount ......................... 22
Know just some............................... 23
Know very little................................ 25
Know nothing at all .......................... 23
Not sure ........................................ -
It indeed is surprising and reassuring that in this media-driven society, an event that enjoys a complete boycott from almost all mainstream media has reached the ears of over half of the American population surveyed.
Next, they were asked to give their personal take on the Tea Party movement - if their opinion of it was very positive, somewhat positive, neutral, somewhat negative, or very negative? Those who did not know enough about the movement to form an opinion, were given the choice to say that they were not sure. And these were the results:
Very positive ................................... 20
Somewhat positive .......................... 21
Neutral............................................ 21
Somewhat negative......................... 10
Very negative .................................. 13
Don't have opinion/not sure............ 15
These results paint an even brighter picture. In a country where popular opinion is formed/dominated by what is fed to the people by mainstream media, it is refreshing to note that the majority have managed to maintain a largely positive view of this ill-advertised movement. The intrigue deepens when these numbers are compared with a similar poll conducted to assess public opinion about the Democratic and Republican parties.

Democratic Party:
Very positive ................................... 10
Somewhat positive .......................... 25
Neutral............................................ 19
Somewhat negative......................... 19
Very negative .................................. 26
Don't have opinion/not sure............ 1

Republican Party:
Very positive ................................... 5
Somewhat positive .......................... 23
Neutral............................................ 27
Somewhat negative......................... 24
Very negative .................................. 19
Don't have opinion/not sure............ 2
20% of respondents feel "very positive" about the tax party movement, compared to only 10% for the Democratic Party and only 5% for the Republican Party. 41% of respondents feel "somewhat positive" or better about the tax party movement, compared to only 35% for the Democratic Party and only 28% for the Republican Party.
While it is quite easy to use these popularity figures to gloat over the superior public acceptance that the Tea Party movement enjoys in comparison with the Democratic Party, the real underlying message here should not be ignored. Bottomline, most American people are still seriously unhappy with liberal Republicans. I would not expect "unreformed" Republican candidates to do well in the 2010 mid-term elections.
61% of respondents felt that America is in a state of decline, compared to only 35% who didn't. Only 27% felt that life our children's generation will be better than it has been for ours, compared to 66% who didn't. These are stunning numbers -- and yet these people don't appear to believe that either political party has the right solution to reverse this decline.
Clearly, Americans know that our nation is in deep trouble -- and that we're digging ourselves deeper with every passing year. They don't see either the Democrats or the Republicans working to dig us out of that trouble, but they do seem willing to give the tea partiers a chance. I think that's all we can ask for -- a chance and the hope of a better future to come.
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Please visit this site for more information about the Tea Party Movement (http://www.fortliberty.org/americans-feel-positively-about-the-tea-party-movement.html). Another article written by Rob Thomas (http://www.fortliberty.org/obama-administration-introduces-litmus-test-for-civil-servants.html).