Is the Tea Party still functioning ?

[Daryl Hunt]

Shun the funk outta here! Good riddance. Let's drink some tea.

I hate tea. Let's dump it over the side once again.

 

[Stryder50]

The Tea Party was never a formal organization, the movement is now defunct.

Partially true ...
1st - OMG, LOL & wow! A whole sub-forum of scores of threads on this one topic. Fascinating!

2nd - Technically it was TEA Party where TEA stood for Taxed Enough Already

3rd - correct never really a dues paying, membership card carrying type of organization. Also not a political party in the sense of the Democrats, or Republicans, or Libertarians, etc. It was more a grass-roots spontaneous response to MaObama's election and the trend it would portend.

4th - There was a sort of attempt by some people to capitalize on making a formal structure of sorts at the national level but it failed to get much traction or involvement from the numerous local movements.

5th - In the case of my local county one, it was more for educational and informational purpose, to raise awareness and concern on essential issues. We had as a mission statement;
"To reverse deficit spending and the concentration of power in central government, in order to preserve states' rights and individual liberty for future generations. "

6th - The local/county one here held together for about five years or so. Gradually may of the active members shifted into other more focused organizations dealing with local issues and government directions, such as encouraging more economic growth and development = business and jobs, and trying to reduce excess local government spending and unnecessary programs, etc. (I'm still a bit too new to post liks to those replacement orgs.)

One thing we did do during our short existence was to host an annual Constitution Knowledge Bowl for middle school student teams to participate in, rounds of Q&A and essays, to supplement the dwindling focus on basic civics that seems to be occurring in local K-12 education.

7th - We never received any funding from BIG donors, like corps or the Koch brothers, just out of our own limited pockets and some small local donations. We most of the active members moving on to other more focused orgs, and pursuits consistant with the ideology of TEA, we disbanded our non-profit a few years ago.

The structure may be gone, but the spirit and purpose remains.

 

[sealybobo]

The Tea Party was never a formal organization, the movement is now defunct.

Yet it was given an entire forum on usmb.