The Tea Party Movement

The Tea Party movement is a conservative interest group in America. It got its name from the Boston Tea Party of 1773, in which angry American colonistsdumped tons of tea into Boston’s harbour because they were mad at Britain for putting a tax on imported tea.

The recent Tea Party movement began in 2009 with angry citizens protesting against Barack Obama’s government. Tea Party followers are against big government spending, high taxes, greedy banks that spend people’s money, Obama’s health care program and the way Barack Obama helped companies indebt and the nation’s economy in 2008. They are also are against immigration.

The Tea Party is opposed to Washington because they see Democrats running the nation’s capital. They say that the government has become too big and too powerful. Most of them see the country in danger and an economic crisis coming up in the near future.

So, who are the typical Tea Party supporters? Almost 90% of them are white. They are typically older middle class American citizens. A third of them live in the South, although the movement is spreading throughout America. Three out of four say they are conservatives who think Barack Obama is too liberal.

The Tea Party followers not have a real leader but one of its figureheads is Sarah Palin, conservative vice presidential candidate of 2008. Some Republican politicians are afraid the Tea Party movement will push the Republican Party more to the right, too far right for some people to elect.

In the past year thousands of local groups have sprung up across the country. The protest movement might be the biggest in the country. Although it is not a political party about 40% of all Americans support it.

Tea Party Protest March in Washington D.C.

Words

• although = while
• candidate = someone who wants to be in an election
• citizen = a person who lives in a country and has rights there
• debt = the money you owe to someone
• dump = unload from a ship
• economy = the system of producing goods and money in a country
• elect = vote for
• figurehead = someone who people see as the leader, but without real power
• follower = fan, helper
• greedy = always wanting more and more
• harbour = a place where ships stay to load and unload goods
• health care = the service that  is responsible for looking after the health of people in a country
• immigration = when people from other countries come to a new country to live and work there
• local = in a town or village
• movement = group that follows certain ideas or actions
• oppose = against
• recent = new, latest
• run = to be in power
• spring up = come up, emerge
• support = agree to an idea and help it
• tax = the money everybody must pay to the government on what they earn and see; the government then uses the money to pay for public services
• throughout = all across