The TEA movement started at the end of the Bush term when TARP was passed. It was initially an uncatalyzed, unrecognizable group of citizens who were shocked that Bush approved TARP.
The tea bag idea was the first catalyst. By itself, it was a good idea, but would have been a mail-in effort and not a personal time commitment. As such, I don’t think it would have sustained a movement by itself.
A second catalyst was needed. Rick Santelli (CNBC) called for Chicago Tea party on Feb 19, 2009. His passionate call for action on live TV, following Obama’s plans to spend unheard of amounts of money, struck a chord.
Things really took off after Santelli spoke.
Next, local citizens all around the country took on the effort and organized their own TEA parties.
Who started the TEA party movement? Concerned citizens and a couple of key catalysts. I give more credit to Santelli as the more effective catalyst.
You wrote,”The TEA Party movement started at the end of the Bush term when TARP was passed.”
You’re getting warmer!!!!
What most people forget is that the first TARP went down to defeat by a 228-217 vote in the House. Here we saw the first evidence of a ‘populist’ coalition of left and right.
Half of the Congressional Black Caucus voted against the first TARP and you had the spectacle of Code Pink activists high fiving the most conservative neo-con Republicans in the House and encouraging them to ‘stay strong’ and vote against TARP.
Politics makes strange bedfellows.
And then McCain announced that he was ‘suspending my campaign’, and that the economy was ‘fundamentally strong’ and that was it for the McCain/Palin ticket.
McCain is no maverick and is politically inept; if he was in any way politically savy he would have embraced this new populist coalition.
He did not as he voted for the first TARP as well as the second TARP which was passed in either late September or early October of 2008.
Taxed
Enough
Already
Politicians
Are
Reprehensible
Taxing
Yahoos
‘It’s all about the Tax, stupid.’