Have You Wondered About The "Tea Party" ?

Have you wondered about the "Tea Party"?  I have.  I went to a tea party in Providence, Rhode Island, last April 15th.  There were signs (nothing obscene or violent), families, people dressed as American Revolutionary characters, and speakers from the local media and local politics.  They seemed like regular people with basic ideas.  Nothing seemingly earthshaking and nothing threatening.  On the rare occasions that I have watched mainstream media, I have seen the Tea Party members portrayed as fringe lunatics.  They seemed pretty normal to me.  Maybe I'm a fringe lunatic, but I really don't think so. 

Anyway.  Today's American Thinker posted some statistics about the Tea Party that are interesting.  According to Rasmussen polling, sixty-three percent of Mainstream America said that their views are closer to those of the Tea Party than those of President Obama.  Forty-eight percent of voters say that their opinions on major issues are closer to the Tea Party than to President Obama.  Eighty-seven percent of the Political Class (who are they?) say that their views are closer to President Obama's than those of the Tea Party.  Is the Political Class the people who were exempted from the changes coming in the recent healthcare reform act?  Among unaffiliated voters, fifty percent say their views are closer to the Tea Party than to the President.

So what does the Tea Party stand for?  Tea stands for Taxed Enough Already.  That I can agree with.  Many of the candidates the Tea Party supports give out copies of the US Constitution along with their campaign literature.  There doesn't really seem to be an organized Tea Party, and I hope it stays that way.  Right now, the Tea Parties are holding our political leaders accountable--they are attending town meetings and holding rallies.  They are doing what all Americans are supposed to be doing.  The only threat they represent is the one to the entrenched political hacks that the rest of us have put up with for so many years.