Tea Party Movement Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Tea Party Movement - Research Paper Example It is quite easy to find analogues of the present phenomenon of Tea Party Movement in a recent American history - this is the relative success of Ross Perot in the Presidential Election in 1992 and the overall success of Ronald Reagan with his right-wing populist coalition which supported him in the election of 1980, and even Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign, who lost the elections, yet mobilized a significant public support in his favor (Harris, 2010, p. 33). Nevertheless, TPM gives the impression of something very new. Its name – Tea Party, was borrowed from American history, as it is associated with American olden times and patriotic spirit. Growing tension between the colonies and the metropolis after the Boston Tea Party eventually led to the War of Independence. There is a clear relationship between the Boston Tea Party and the present one: people in Boston were protesting against arbitrariness of British political and financial elite and now people protest against the arrogant financial elite and the federal government and presidential policies all over America. This conservative movement, disappointed with the policy of the U.S. President and excessive, in their view, liberalism of the Republican Party, has strengthened its political position. According to the recent survey, the percentage of Americans who support the military campaign in Afghanistan fell to its lowest level since 2001.   The result is very unfavorable for Barack Obama, who actively plays the card of fighting global terrorism.  The situation looks even gloomier on the domestic political front, where the Administration has to struggle fierce critics of the health reform.  In other words, President Barack Obama has created the Tea Party Movement with his own hands, the movement, which expresses the most conservative views primarily of white middle- aged and middle class Americans and took its present shape probably in 2010. Moreover, it involved thousands of people who were totally indifferent to politics before. The nature of American politics has been dramatically rev olutionized by the Tea Party’s ability to politicize people who were previously apolitical. Having never felt any deference for elite opinion makers in the first place, the newly politicized Tea Partiers find it easy to turn their backs on them.  (Harris, 2010, p. 5) The initial impulse for its creation, apparently, was the adoption of the Paulson Plan by Congress in autumn of 2008, aimed at saving the largest U.S. banks at the expense of the state budget, that is, ultimately, taxpayers.  The law was adopted against the clear disagreement of the majority of voters. Disturbance by the actions of the political establishment, which rushed to rescue the fat cats at the expense of ordinary Americans, was very strong.  Around the same time another problem appeared at the center of public attention practically first – the state debt.  It was a kind of reality breakthrough in the mass consciousness.   Our political system is dysfunctional, Congress is unrepresentativ e; government is out of control and the political parties are part of the system, both of them. (Hillyer, 2009, p. 47) February 19, 2009, about 7 o’clock in the morning,  standing in the midst of stock gamblers and officials of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the editor of business news of CNBC channel, Rick Santelli, attacked the Obama administration’s plan to refinance mortgages. It was he who sarcastically said about Chicago Tea Party in July, advising all the capitalists to