Tea Party Conservatives Make Their Voices Heard
"Their general uniting force is just that they're unhappy right now with the way things are," says one observer. In reaction comes the Coffee Party.
05 March 2010
Photo: AP
A Tax Day protest by Tea Party activists in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 15, 2009. Demonstrations took place around the country to protest government bailouts and spending.
This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
Some conservatives in the United States have found a new voice. The Tea Party is not a nationally recognized political party. So far it is a movement loosely organized around a common identity. There are different, and in some cases competing, Tea Party groups around the country.
Some people accuse the movement of being controlled by the Republicans. Others say the activists are independent thinkers who will oppose any politician they see as supporting big government and big spending.
Tea Party activists see themselves as modern-day versions of the anti-tax protesters from before the American Revolution.
The Boston Tea Party was a protest of British taxation of tea. One night in seventeen seventy-three, a group of colonists went onto three ships in Boston Harbor. They threw tons of tea into the water.
The famous saying "no taxation without representation" expressed the anger of the colonists.
The new movement took shape last year. The activists gained national attention by protesting the health care reform efforts of President Obama and the Democrats in Congress.
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