We Don't Want Your Tea or Your Forced Abortions

War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Well, it wasn’t good for tea anyway or the people who wanted to drink it after the British won the French and Indian war. King George III, decided that the American colonies, who had gained a measurable amount of independence during the war, would be taxed to offset the costly war he won. A series of taxes were levied against the colonies beginning in 1765.

These Acts were imposed on the colonies and stated that payment of said taxes is agreement to be ruled by Britain. The colonies refused and the British pushed harder and passed more tax acts. The colonists continued to refuse based on their recently claimed “no taxation without representation.”

So, to take this slowly, the American colonists refused to pay taxes imposed by a body of government they did not elect. Britain did not want to lose control of the colonies and still had the issue of troops in America that were the British’s responsibility to pay for, so emerged the Townshend Acts of 1767.

The Townshend Act imposed a tax on glass. paint, oil, lead, paper, and tea to raise money for administration positions in the colonies. It also tightened and imposed new laws about trade and customs. If the Stamp Act upset the colonies, then this act simply electrified them. It may not have been the simple act of the tax, but the relentless pursuit of control the king was trying to enforce over the colonies.

Not only will you pay, your very act of payment guarantees your submission. This really wasn’t sitting well with the colonists and I have to assume at this point King George III was not the brightest of men given his repeated issue and rescind technique.. After he rescinded all the taxes except the tax on tea due to the colonists boycotting of British goods, a fairly clever plan emerged.

The British Parliament gave the tea industry over to the East Indian Company, which reduced the cost of tea greatly and they reduced the duties attached to tea import hoping that the colonies love for tea would win out over there reluctance to be governed by the monarch.  No such luck. The colonists refused to pay. In fact they refused tea to even enter into their harbors. In 1773 three ships carrying tea arrived in the Boston harbor and it was agreed that the ships would be turned away and no duties would be paid. The Collector of Customs in turn, refused to release the ships without payment. So some 200 men stormed the ships and dumped the cargo into the harbor. 

The colonists for the most part were thrilled, Parliament, not so much. In a now predictable fashion the Intolerable Acts were passed and with it begins the American independence.

I was originally trying to draw a connection between the Tea Party Patriots and the Boston Tea Party revolution without much success. 

The colonists did not feel comfortable abiding by a distant government when they were not involved in electing officials or participating in laws being passed. It started a revolution, and I love the idea, but it scares me. All I hear from the current tea party is fear and intolerance. Fear of government health care, though I am sure a large percentage utilizes medicare, fear of a socialized government, but I imagine that a percentage if "patriots" collect or will collect soon, their social security, that I pay taxes on. Don't get me wrong here, I like paying social security tax, I really do. It might be one of the few I'm okay with because it supports my elders and I think that's a terrific thing to do. Income tax is a whole other story, maybe next post.


So who makes up the Tea Party Patriots today?  A study done at the University of Washington found that 19 percent of Tea Party content involved “attacks on illegal immigrants, criticism of the gay community, racially derogatory commentary, or personal criticism of President Barack Obama.” 24 percent of the content talked of socialism or communism plots to take over America and other conspiracy theories. There are differing numbers when it comes to demographics, but it is consistently reported that there are more males than females, more whites than blacks, and more money than not.

I find the tea party who dumped the tea to be far more inspiring than our supposed current revolutionary movement.  The members of the Tea Party can and do vote. They are represented and taxed. They have more money than the general population. They claim to uphold the “personal liberty of the individual, within the rule of law,” except when it come to gay marriage and abortion. Apparently that's why they have "within...the law." so we wouldn't expect ALL of our personal liberties. They are fairly vague in their mission statement throwing around the words “liberty” and “constitution” a great deal and require you to sign up to read further. They don’t affiliate with any political party, are a grassroots organization that claim as their core values, fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free markets. They oppose government intervention into the operations of private business, like OTC derivatives, that leads to recession 2008 and bailout after bailout and TARP and a fight for control of the House and a unbelievable distain for our President Obama. I don't get it folks. I do not get it.


Rumors fly about forced abortions (not possible), in school prayer (go to private school or pray at home) and loss of equal rights (well woman and gays still don't have theirs)  and I for one do not want these tea partiers speaking for me.

This is not the type of revolution I was expecting.