Terry Mancour
... The origin of the protest comes from an episode in 1773 where a bunch of colonists in Boston used a political pretext for a minor act of commercial vandalism against the viciously oppressive British regime .. and its audacious plan to tax tea. The protesters supposedly dressed up as Indians so the British wouldn't recognize a bunch of drunken white guys throwing a bunch of lightly-guarded crates of tea over the rails. It had little practical effect, but it was a colourful bit of propaganda for the independence movement that eventually became part of our national tradition.
The more recent tea parties .. sought to fire-up a bunch of working-class conservatives against the evils of rising taxes and budget deficits and all things Obama in general.
That is, it wanted to organise middle-class people to defend the rights of rich white people to stay richer than the middle-class white people. Since just about every working person in the sparse crowds actually got a tax-cut this year, high taxes were unlikely to be their real motivation for attendance. And yes, they were overwhelmingly white.
So what did motivate them? Mostly hatred for Barack Obama, pure and simple. The American public rejected them and their failed policies. Blaming him for the profound self-pity that arises out of getting your arse royally kicked in an election was a factor. They held signs insisting that Obama was simultaneously a socialist and a fascist, a radical Muslim and a radical black Christian, a hopeless incompetent and an evil genius ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/apr/18/republicans-tea-party-epic-fail
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