As a young student growing up in Massachusetts, I learned of the politics, the battles, and the patriots of the American Revolution which had begun just miles from my home. I woke up before dawn on April 19th to watch reenactments of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. I visited landmarks like the Old North Church, the Bunker Hill Monument and the Old State House, just outside of which the Boston Massacre took place. I memorized Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride," and saw the gravestones of the famous Boston patriots.
Over Christmas break, I took a day to re-walk the Freedom Trail, the 2.5 mile brick pathway that winds through the streets of Boston and the North End, passing by some of the most important landmarks of US history. It made me proud. Proud to know that this was where our country began. And it made me sad.
It made me sad because I have seen defiant symbols of the American Revolution exploited by the Tea Party movement. I would have liked, if it were not undergoing renovations, to have visited the Boston Tea Party Ship and Museum. This is the site where the real, and in my mind, the only, Tea Party took place. It is where, in the dead of a cold December night, dozens of patriots, led by Samuel Adams, boarded British ships disguised as Indians and proceeded to ax and dump boxes of tea into Boston Harbor.
The scene was not a riot. There was no shouting, no pitchforks, no torches. The men worked efficiently, diligently, and quietly, then left in the morning, fearing that they might be attacked or arrested for treason. Yet their protest against Britain was strong and symbolic. The Boston Tea Party was a public demonstration against a British tax on tea, levied against the colonist without their representation in British Parliament. It was a protest inspired by the adage that every American schoolchild learns in history class: "No Taxation without Representation."
Yet now, the recent populist and anti-federal government movement has taken on the name of what is arguably the most famous political protest in our country's history. The Tea Party Movement, while still largely disjointed and comprised of members on a wide spectrum of anti-government sentiments, is dedicated to the opposition of a large federal government, government spending, and taxation.
While I respect every American's right to dissent and to voice their opinion, I find the efforts of the Tea Party protestors to invoke the spirit of the American Revolution a shameful and contemptible comparison that sullies the great history of this country which I have known for my entire life. The patriots of American colonies opposed the taxes imposed on them because they had no voice in Parliament with which to express dissent.
In today's America, every citizen is represented by a Congressman and Senators who are elected to represent their constituents in Congress. Citizens are taxed. However, they are also given a voice of representation. The fundamental difference is that the Tea Party participants don't want to pay the taxes that are implemented fairly and legally.
Indeed, historians acknowledge that a more accurate historical reference point to the Tea Party movement is Shays' Rebellion in 1786. Shays' Rebellion was an uprising of poor farmers in Western Massachusetts, angered by debt and taxes, who modeled their rebellion off of the recent Revolution by trying to use the same tactics of the Sons of Liberty. In many ways, the Shays Rebellion is similar to the Tea Party movement of today. Preceded by a financial crisis, the Rebellion was aimed at the government of Massachusetts and its agents across the state. It is to this movement that the Tea Party is similar. Yet they compare themselves to the greatest American patriotic heros.
And they have also tarnished symbols of that Revolution.
Many Tea Baggers, as they are called, show up to rallies in tri-cornered hats while prepared to besmirch another life-long interest of mine: flags. In particular, the Tea Party movement favors the Gasdsen flag. The famous yellow standard features a coiled rattlesnake with the motto, "Dont Tread on Me." Named for Christopher Gadsden, a Sons of Liberty leader in South Carolina and later a Colonel in the Continental Army, the flag was presented to Commodore Esek Hopkins as a standard for the United States Navy by Gadsden in 1775. The motto served as a defiant warning to the British not to impose their rule on the colonies, and the flag served as a symbol of the Revolution.
And now this patriotic symbol is being exploited to promote the Tea Party cause. Attempting to incite sentiments of "true patriotism," protestors wave Gadsden flags and 13-star American flags. As if the Obama administration is as oppressive and tyrannical as the British Empire, and they equate to the patriots who formed our country.
So as the Tea Baggers march and wave their flags and call the President a Marxist, a Fascist, a Socialist and any other "-ist" that they can come up with, they stifle a little bit of my love of history. But while they can try to justify their hatred of government as patriotism, they'll never crush the true spirit of the American Revolution that I know and love.
The Tea Party movement truly astounds me. Even many of my Republican friends are embarrassed at how members try to reign in attention. When one friends found out his aunt was a member, he asked her why she was in it and what she thought should be done to solve our countries problems. Her response, "because I care about this country and want to be a good citizen." When he asked her to specify, she changed the subject.
ReplyDeleteWhat shocks me is the recent poll that came out that revealed that most members of the Tea Party have been college educated. This really shocked me because I feel that most of what they do is chant catchy phrases attacking Obama and the Democratic Party and do not offer much of an argument or policy proposals that you would hope college educated members of society would invoke.