All Tea Parties Are Not Alike

By Tom Maloy, a board member of the Georgia Tea Party. Contact him at tom@thegeorgiateaparty.org.

In the words of our current president: “I want to make this perfectly clear,” all Tea Parties are not alike. 

The fact that most of them have the words “Tea Party” in their names does not connote any form of kinship. Tea Party is a generic term, like country club or grocery store. 

Its origin stems from the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when colonists led by the Sons of Liberty tossed crates of English tea into Boston Harbor. They did so to show their disgust and anger for what they thought was an unconscionable tax on that colonial staple. 

Contrary to popular belief, “Tea” is not an acronym for “Taxed Enough Already.” 

While everyone in the Tea Party movement believes we are being taxed too much—actually much more than the colonists were—that is just a slogan and does not fully reflect the real purpose of the Tea Parties.  

Tea Parties exist because we believe that the federal government has drifted away from the principles of the Constitution and from the spirit of the Declaration of Independence. Our leaders have ignored and distorted these venerable documents to further an agenda that is far from what the Founding Fathers envisioned. 

Therefore, the Tea Party objective is to return the government to those constitutional principles, which would result in smaller government, lower taxes and greater liberty for all Americans.

There are thousands of Tea Party groups that have sprung up spontaneously in cities and towns all across the nation, and, like snowflakes, no two are alike. While the mission may be the same, the methods are different. 

The Georgia Tea Party Inc., headquartered in Cobb County, is organized as an issue advocacy group. Its mission is to teach all who seek to learn the principles and spirit of individual liberty and constitutionally limited self-government.

GTPI achieves its objectives primarily by educating the public about the issues. Once educated, people generally make the right decisions.

A good example of this is the event GTPI held in Cobb County’s Jim Miller Park before last year’s primaries. Candidates from all parties and in all state and federal races were invited to participate so voters could talk with them face to face. More than 50 candidates showed up to talk with several thousand grateful Cobb voters.  

While the Georgia Tea Party does not support or oppose any political candidates or parties, other groups may.

Some employ paid lobbyists. A few do align themselves with specific candidates and parties. And one of them, the Tea Party Express, acts as a political action committee. 

Because of this, some candidates are dubbed Tea Party candidates by the media. That label does not necessarily mirror the opinions of all the Tea Parties, however.

The Tea Party movement comprises millions of individuals and nearly that many opinions about how to return America to its constitutional roots. There is no central leadership that tells members how to think. It is not homogeneous by any stretch of the imagination, and it is that diversity of ideas that gives the movement its strength. 

So when you read that the Tea Party is doing this, or supporting that, take it with a grain of salt and find out which Tea Party the reporter is talking about.