Editorial: The History of the Contemporary Tea Party
Washington, DC Tea Party
During the 2007-2008 presidential primary season, the Libertarian Party went through a little schism. Two factions of the party vied for control: the Purists (as I’ll call them), who wanted to nominate a candidate who was an outspoken, “The Law” thumping, Jefferson-quoting — even if he was foaming at the mouth — Libertarian; and the Pragmatists (as I’ll call them), who wanted to nominate someone with real political chops, preferably who had been elected to something before, even if he wasn’t 100%, because it gave the LP street cred.
With the nomination of (former Republican U.S. Representative) Bob Barr, the Pragmatists had won. The Purists, however, being Purists, weren’t satisfied with this and started their own political party: The Boston Tea Party USA.
After Obama’s election, what with the whole bailout debacle and all, as the story goes, the state Libertarian Party of Illinois decided to play make-nice with the Boston Tea Party USA folks, so they decided to state a Boston tea party-style protest on the shore of Lake Michigan. The idea was (essentially) to suck up to the Boston Tea Party USA folks and bring them back into the fold.
That was the tea party that CNBC contributor Rick Santelli referenced in his now-famous rant live on television from The CME Group in Chicago ( www.snipurl.com/rantoftheyear ), and that was what got the contemporary Tea Party movement off the ground.
Following Santelli’s call-to-arms, local Tea Party groups sprang up all over the country, some having rallies in February, almost all of them having events on the day of that year’s income tax filing deadline.
Here in Murfreesboro, a small group of four Rutherford County locals, led by then-chairman of the local Republican Party Lou Ann Zelenik, put together an event hoping for at least 300 attendees. Over 3,000 people showed up for the largest political rally in Murfreesboro history.
The rest, as they say, is history.
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Short URL: http://murfreesboronewspress.com/?p=1397
Posted by RussJohnson
on May 18 2010. Filed under Murfreesboro Community, Murfreesboro Events, Murfreesboro Politics.
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