# What is a "Tea Party member"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 17, 2010, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749 "2010-05-17T12:05:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/1 "2010-05-17T12:05:36Z")
I’ve seen this phrase invoked in a number of threads here, and it currently gets (with quotes) 651,000 Google hits. But what exactly makes a Party member? Showing up at any Tea-identified event? Simple self-identification from the recliner? If you were identified on interwebs as a _Tea Party member_, how could that be confirmed or denied? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/2 "2010-05-17T12:48:04Z")
[http://www.conservapedia.com/Tea\_Party\_Movement](http://www.conservapedia.com/Tea_Party_Movement) > [@](#): > > **Autonomy of local organizers** > > Most organization of Tea Parties and similar events is local. Typical of the movement is the Morristown Tea Party Organization (Morristown, New Jersey), which has a five-member board of trustees and about fifty dedicated volunteers who handle operations, communication, and logistics without assistance or direction from any regional or other organization. State-wide co-ordinating bodies do exist (for example, New Jersey Tea Parties United), but local organizations are responsible for most of their activities, fund-raising, and legal functioning. In this regard, the Tea Party Movement is similar to the Independent Baptist Fellowship of North America, which never seeks to dictate to individual churches how they must conduct their affairs. > > **Individual comportment and deportment** > > Event participants, and especially event planners, are urged to comport themselves in a manner respectful of the rights and feelings of others. Organizational leaders consciously endeavor to distinguish their movement from many liberal protest movements, which often characterize themselves by rude behavior, vandalism, and even physical assaults against their opponents. Any person who persistently suggests that Tea Party Movement participants engage in activities remotely similar to this may usually consider themselves excluded, and in some cases organizers have summoned law-enforcement authorities to deal with provocative behavior by attendees at planning and other meetings. Nothing bout guns. There should be something about packing heat at protests. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/3 "2010-05-17T13:01:43Z")
'Tea Party Member - 'a person whose interest in balanced budgets and small government began with the election of a black person to the Presidency.) ---
**Author:** ![Livardo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/43a26b/32.png) [@Livardo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Livardo)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/4 "2010-05-17T17:10:59Z")
Isn’t there also two main branches of the Tea Party now? There may be more even, but last I heard they were throwing barbs at each other. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/5 "2010-05-18T05:28:50Z")
> [@tagos](#): > > 'Tea Party Member - 'a person whose interest in balanced budgets and small government began with the election of a black person to the Presidency.) a person whose interest in balanced budgets and small government began with the election of a left of center President/Congress who ran the national debt up with little return for the money spent. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/6 "2010-05-18T05:33:55Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > a person whose interest in balanced budgets and small government began with the election of a left of center President/Congress who ran the national debt up with little return for the money spent. That, sir, is a nasty slur – Mr. Bush was not left of center. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/7 "2010-05-18T05:37:40Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > That, sir, is a nasty slur – Mr. Bush was not left of center. Of that we agree. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/8 "2010-05-18T10:55:36Z")
The correct answer is anyone that opponents of the movement can tie to it for as long as they believe it advances their beliefs in doing so. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/9 "2010-05-18T11:09:43Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > a person whose interest in balanced budgets and small government began with the election of a left of center President/Congress who ran the national debt up with little return for the money spent. Let me know when we elect one of those, then. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/10 "2010-05-18T11:55:54Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > a person whose interest in balanced budgets and small government began with the election of a left of center President/Congress who ran the national debt up with little return for the money spent. Just in case this was supposed to refer to the current president and Congress, what we have to show for Obama’s relatively modest portion of the debt was the averting of the second Great Depression, the end of the recession, and a return to positive jobs creation. To paraphrase Co. Jessup, “I would rather you said thank you, and went on your way. Otherwise I suggest you pick up a ballot and vote for a party whose economic principles aren’t guaranteed to skull-fuck America every time they are implemented. Either way, I don’t give a damn about what your little tea party thinks it is entitled to.” ---
**Author:** ![PatriotGrrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/11 "2010-05-18T14:36:19Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > The correct answer is anyone that opponents of the movement can tie to it for as long as they believe it advances their beliefs in doing so. This. Also anyone whose opponents think it’s insulting to call them a member. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/12 "2010-05-18T14:51:07Z")
> [@PatriotGrrrl](#): > > This. Also anyone whose opponents think it’s insulting to call them a member. Do you guys think that the nasty Libruls just made up the “Tea Party” protests so that they could have someone to point and laugh at? Did they also infiltrate them with pretend protesters who came up with nuggets like “the government should keep it’s hands off my medicare”? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/13 "2010-05-18T15:52:00Z")
> [@](#): > > What is a “Tea Party member”? In point of fact, I was a member of a tea party. Last week my daughter did the whole little girl fake tea party thing, with her (plastic) tea party set and lots of stuffed animals (I sat next to the otter and Baby Beluga, a rather tattered white stuffed beluga…it was really a place of honor, considering those are two of her favorites). It’s just one of the many indignities that fathers occasionally have to endure for the sakes of their large glistening eyed little girls when they ask it… Oh, wait…did you mean some other tea party?? -XT ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/14 "2010-05-18T19:50:25Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Just in case this was supposed to refer to the current president and Congress, what we have to show for Obama’s relatively modest portion of the debt was the averting of the second Great Depression, the end of the recession, and a return to positive jobs creation. > > To paraphrase Co. Jessup, “I would rather you said thank you, and went on your way. Otherwise I suggest you pick up a ballot and > vote for a party whose economic principles aren’t guaranteed to skull-fuck America every time they are implemented. Either way, I don’t give a damn about what your little tea party thinks it is entitled to.” To paraphrase a time honored political saying, “it’s the economy stupid”. Unemployment is rising despite spending trillions of dollars. The pork laden spend-fest did little for the economy. You don’t have to worry about people picking up ballots in the next election. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/15 "2010-05-18T20:01:31Z")
Unfortunately for the Democrats, there’s very little evidence that the bailout had much effect, other than bloating the public sector payroll. Private sector job creation is stalled out. Certainly there’s no evidence that the ‘multiplier’ occurred as predicted. Last month, _Canada_ created almost as many jobs as did the U.S., despite being 1/10 the size. And our ‘stimulus’ was a small fraction of the size of the U.S’s. And evidence is continuing to mount that the health care bill is a disaster that is harming job creation and now appears to increase the cost curve, rather than slowing it. Well done, Democrats. So, what’s a tea party member? Someone who opposes this stuff and is taking a stand against it. As for these people being silent when Bush was in office - I guess you weren’t paying attention, because Bush’s approval ratings towards the end of his presidency were so low that really it represented little more than the religious right and dogmatic Republican supporters. The Tea Party people opposed Bush as well. They just weren’t as vociferous about it, for the same reason Democrats have shut up about gay marriage, Guantanamo Bay, Miranda rights, warrantless wiretapping, the Patriot Act, the war in Iraq, and all the other things they marched against when Bush was in office, and which continue almost unchanged under Obama: You don’t have much to gain marching against your own side when you perceive the alternative to be worse. ---
**Author:** ![Algorithm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/algorithm/32/12204_2.png) [@Algorithm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algorithm)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/16 "2010-05-18T20:32:06Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > The Tea Party people opposed Bush as well. They just weren’t as vociferous about it… You don’t have much to gain marching against your own side when you perceive the alternative to be worse. I thought tea partiers weren’t Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/17 "2010-05-18T21:40:29Z")
> [@PatriotGrrrl](#): > > … Also anyone whose opponents think it’s insulting to call them a member. You’re not seriously suggesting that calling a member of the/a Tea “Party” (and now apparently we need to add Organization/Movement too) a Tea Party member is insulting because _member_ has another, unrelated, meaning, right? Would calling someone “a member of The Tea Party Movement” be doubly insulting (since _movement_ also has another, unrelated, meaning)? Please, tell me I’ve been whooshed. CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/18 "2010-05-18T21:46:30Z")
Depends heavily on your use of the term ‘member’, I suppose… -XT ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/19 "2010-05-18T21:50:01Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > a person whose interest in balanced budgets and small government began with the election of a left of center President/Congress who ran the national debt up with little return for the money spent. Well, even your corrected version is still hypocritical, since it means they aren’t concerned when their side is running up the deficit and expanding the government, but only using the platform as a bullshit excuse to make partisan strikes against the other side. So, uh, yeah, let’s be generous and assume you’re right and assume they are just dipshit partisan hypocrites instead of dipshit partisan hypocrite racists. I’m mostly ok with that. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749/20 "2010-05-18T23:06:02Z")
> [@Algorithm](#): > > I thought tea partiers weren’t Republicans. You didn’t have to be a Republican to realize that Barack Obama would be worse than George Bush or John McCain. Hell, I’m not even American and I could have told you that. In fact, I did. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tea-party-member/539749.md?page=2)