What are the Tea Parties About?

My friend and colleague, Zack Christenson, has produced a great video for The Heartland Institute about the Tea Party movement. Not only is it packed with historical references, it's also very well-produced.


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Pretty Okay

That is well produced, although it does get a little repetitive towards the end, reusing the same 18th century engravings a few times too many.

I'd argue with a couple of points, though.

"237 years ago, a group of ordinary citizens rose to protest an oppressive government."

Ordinary citizens? I'm not so sure. Samuel Adams isn't exactly ordinary. Have you tried his beer? It's pretty good. And the video follows the Tea Party up with images of Jefferson, Washington, Madison, and, uh, one other guy I can't recognize from his old portrait. And they were hardly ordinary.

But more importantly:

"Their struggle for liberty made America a bastion of freedom."

I'd rather say that their struggle began the experiment in freedom known as America, an experiment we're all still working on. Because America was hardly a bastion of anything when the Founding Fathers got done with it. Stated as it is in the video, it sounds as if Washington and Jefferson wrapped up the project and left us with a finished country, all done, perfectly free and good. And then somewhere after that it got messed up and now we have to fix it.

This is hardly the case. The United States is a work in progress, always has been. As of 1776 there were over a million slaves in America who would never taste freedom.

I also have to admit to being mildly appalled at the parallel being made in the video between men facing down British muskets with bayonets and fat people in polo shirts standing around with poorly made posters.

Bastion of Freedom

For Example

Hornberger says, "See, for example, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here."

Methinks thou doth protest (and hyperlink) too much!