Tea Party protests
[1] Most Tea Party activities have since been focused on opposing efforts of the Obama administration, and on recruiting, nominating, and supporting candidates for state and national elections.
[4][5] Tea Party protests evoked images, slogans and themes from the American Revolution, such as tri-corner hats and yellow Gadsden "Don't Tread on Me" flags.
[9] Reaction to the tea parties included counter-protests expressing support for the Obama administration, and dismissive or mocking media coverage of both the events and their promoters.
[25][26][27][28][29][30] In late 2008, Young Americans for Liberty, with the endorsement of Rep. Paul, organized a protest called the Binghamton Tea Party for January 24 of the following year where participants dressing in Native American costumes and dumping soft drinks into New York's Susquehanna River, as a protest of former NY Governor David Paterson's proposed 18% tax increase on soda.
[37] The term "porkulus" was coined by radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh on his January 27, 2009, broadcast,[38] in reference to both the 2009 stimulus bill, which had been introduced to the House of Representatives the day before, as well as to pork-barrel spending and earmarks.
[46] Interviewed by a local reporter, Rakovich explained that she "thinks the government is wasting way too much money helping people receive high definition TV signals" and that "Obama promotes socialism, although 'he doesn't call it that'".
[46] Regarding the role Freedomworks played in the demonstration, Rakovich acknowledged they were involved "right from the start,"[47] and said that in her 21⁄2 hour training session, she was taught how to attract more supporters and was specifically advised not to focus on President Obama.
[51][52] Carender contacted conservative author and Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin in order to gain her support and publicize the event.
[53] Malkin encouraged her readers to stage similar events in Denver on the following day where President Obama was scheduled to sign the stimulus bill into law.
[57] KFYI organized the protest in reaction to Obama's visit to the local high school to hold his first public talk on elements of the stimulus bill.
"[59] On February 19, 2009,[40] in a broadcast from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CNBC Business News Network editor Rick Santelli loudly criticized the government plan to refinance mortgages as "promoting bad behavior" by "subsidizing losers' mortgages", and raised the possibility of putting together a "Chicago Tea Party in July".
[66] About 10 hours after Santelli's remarks, reTeaParty.com was bought to coordinate Tea Parties scheduled for the 4th of July and within two weeks was reported to be receiving 11,000 visitors a day.
Late April saw Tea Parties in Annapolis, Maryland, White Plains, New York,[81] Jackson, Tennessee,[citation needed] and Monroe, Washington.
[87] During June 2009, another dozen events were held in North Carolina,[88] California,[89] Rhode Island,[90] Texas,[91] Ohio,[92] Michigan,[93] Montana,[94] Florida,[95] New York,[96] and Washington State.
[99][100] "The rally followed a national effort that drew thousands of activists to Tea Party events across the country on April 15, 2009, when income taxes are due.
[111] The New York Times reported on August 8, 2009, that organizations opposed to the President Obama's health care legislation were urging opponents to be disruptive.
The memo continued, "The Rep [representative] should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist agenda of Washington.
Protesters have also appropriated left-wing imagery; the logo for the March 9/12 on Washington featured a raised fist design that was intended to resemble those used by the pro-labor, anti-war, and black power movements of the 1960s.
[114] Tea Party activist Mark Skoda noted the slow response to critics who have charged the protesters with racism, stating: "It took us 72 hours to respond to John Lewis... We're not needing to meet every week.
[122][123][127] Conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart, who wasn't at the protests,[127] said the incidents reported by Cleaver, Lewis and Carson were fabricated as part of a plan to annihilate the Tea Party movement by all means necessary and that they never actually happened.
He offered to donate $10,000 to the United Negro College Fund if Lewis could provide audio or video footage of the slurs, or pass a lie detector test.
According to the New York Daily News, one letter "asked what Rahm Emanuel did with Weiner in the shower", in a reference to the harassment claims against ex-Rep Eric Massa.
[119] Kate Zernike, author of Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America, has observed, "Rather than explain it as a fringe of the movement, which they plausibly might have, they argued that the ugliness had never happened.
