The Tea Party Patriots was one of the first SMOs to organize within the Tea Party movement, launching their website only weeks after the approximate beginning of the movement (Burchart 80). Due to this close timing, I will treat the causes of the Tea Party Patriots to be the same as those which galvanized the greater Tea Party movement. I will argue that grievance theory, identity theory, and resource mobilization theory best explain the origins of the collective action under the Tea Party Patriots, with the first two (which in this case are related) being the most effective.
A theory of mobilizing grievances is the most effective in explaining the origin of the Tea Party. Snow and Soule define mobilizing grievances to be those “shared among some number of actors” and which are “felt to be sufficiently serious to warrant not only collective complaint but also some kind of corrective, collective action” (24). The main public grievances of these first Tea Partiers were economic and political. (The case could be made for the influence of social and racial grievances as well, but they won’t be discussed here.) The “Great Recession” of 2008 set off a “panic,” and blame was placed on the government and the banks, institutions which were traditionally relatively trustworthy (Zernike 6), as well as those Americans who were unable to fulfill their obligations to the banks (Santelli). Interestingly, Cho et al. found that “the spatial distribution of … Tea Party activism … corresponds quite closely to the incidence of home foreclosures” (105) despite the perception of those foreclosed upon as “losers” (Santelli). The participation of Santelli’s “losers” is easily explained, however: they were unaware of that image, and they participated to...
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...f Political Science 16.1 (1986): 57- 85. Web.
McCarthy, John D., Zald, Mayer N. “Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory.” American Journal of Sociology 82.6 (1977): 1212-1241. Web.
Parker, Christopher S., and Barreto, Matt A. Change They Can’t Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013. Print.
Santelli, Rick. CNBC. Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago, IL. 19 February, 2009. Journalistic commentary.
Snow, David A., and Soule, Sarah A. “Mobilizing Grievances.” A Primer on Social Movements. W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. 23-63. Print.
Williamson, Vanessa; Skocpol, Theda; and Coggin, John. “The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism.” Perspectives on Politics 9.1 (2011): 25-43.
Zernike, Kate. Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America. New York: Times Books, 2010. Print.
Gary B. Nash argues that the American Revolution portrayed “radicalism” in the sense on how the American colonies and its protesters wanted to accommodate their own government. Generally what Gary B. Nash is trying to inform the reader is to discuss the different conditions made by the real people who were actually fighting for their freedom. In his argument he makes it clear that throughout the revolution people showed “radicalism” in the result of extreme riots against the Stamp Act merchants, but as well against the British policies that were implemented. He discusses the urgency of the Americans when it came to declaring their issues against the British on how many slaves became militants and went up against their masters in the fight for a proclamation to free themselves from slavery. But he slowly emerges into the argument on how colonists felt under the
Many people believe that the Boston Tea Party arose just because of the Tea Act that came into play in 1773, but in-fact, this major statement arose from two issues surrounding the British Empire in 1765. The first of the issues was that the British East India Company was at risk of going under and the Parliament was finding ways to bring it back. The second issue was that there was a continuing dispute about the extent of the Parliament’s authority. Many colonists believe that the Parliament went overboard with their power and the people were concerned about the future. Attempting to resolve these two major issues, the North Ministry only worsened the problem and produced a showdown that would eventually result in revolution.
Many people know about the Revolutionary war and how the colonists seized their independence from the British. What most do not understand is that there was a series of events that steared the colonists onto the road to independence. They began to think for themselves and started to challenge authority. Coming to the New World, the colonists reached for power and financial opportunity when challenging authority in these three examples: the Witchcraft Trials, Bacon’s Rebellion, and the Boston Tea Party.
Now fast forward to a colony on mars. It is a brand new colony and is using past historic figures, ideas, and events to use as a government. The best option for this colony would be to have a democratic government, not to be confused with the democrat party. This government would be voted on by the people as actual votes. There would be a president, but their job would be to make sure that the officials underneath are doing the duty they are supposed to do, and to make sure things that are voted on are followed through. But one thing that is evident in some laws and the reason for the move to mars is the need to advance as a society. Everything would be decided by majority vote when it comes to elections. Everyone would have equal rights;
On the brink of revolution, the colonies were divided amongst themselves. Two factions with different ideologies “The Patriots” & and the “The Loyalist”, to know these factions we must first know another. Because both parties played a pivotal role in the “American Revolution”.
By this point, the colonists were beginning to question Britain’s motives towards them. They believed they were being treated like slaves and being used solely for the economic growth of Britain. One night, in 1773, the colonists rebelled against these taxes on their tea. A group of men dressed as Native Americans boarded a ship at Boston Harbor and unloaded three vessels of taxed tea (Boston Tea Party). This event, known a...
Gordon S. Wood. The Radicalism of the American Revolution. Vintage; Reprint edition. March 2, 1993
In the first few months of 1773 the British East India Company found it was sitting on large stocks of tea that it could not sell in England. It was on the verge of bankruptcy, and many members of Parliament owned stock in this company. (USA, 1) The Tea Act in 1773 was an effort to save it. The Tea Act gave the company the right to export its merchandise without paying taxes. Thus, the company could undersell American merchants and monopolize the colonial tea trade. By October, the Sons of Liberty in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston threatened tea imports and pledged a tea boycott.
In the mid eighteenth century colonist of the new world started to rebel against Britain. Living in the colonies cost Britain a great deal of money Colonist did not like that they were being taxed. There were several acts passed that angered the colonists. For example, the Stamp Act, the Stamp Act was passed in 1765 taxed all legal documents including newspapers and other printed materials. The Stamp Act affected all that bought printed materials and it did not affect the poor because it was not too expensive. The colonist started to rebel and boycotted “No taxation without representation.” The colonists rebelled in many ways one of them was the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party occurred in 1773 as an act of revolt colonists threw tea cargo of a ship to the ocean. These acts of Britain towards the new colonies caused colonist to revolve and declare war to separate from Britain. The colonists were not justified to going to war to break away from Britain because England was paying more taxes and the mother country deserved absolute respect; however, the colonists were justified to break away from Britain because they were taxed without representation.
In the political cartoon, Tea Bagged, it demonstrated how the Boston Tea Party lead to the American Revolution. This event was monumental in the American Revolution. When it came to the tea act the colonists finally had enough and they wanted to get revenge on the British. They formed a group and came up with a plan to raid the ships, and throw overboard tea. Finlay on the night of December 16, 1773, patriots dressed up as Indians and boarded the boat in the night and threw of tons and tons of tea. The Boston Tea Party was the key-event for the Revolutionary War. With this act, the colonists started the violent part of the revolution. It was the first try of the colonists, to rebel with violence against their own government. It was an important
Most people have heard of The Boston tea party. When American patriots dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded the British ships in the Boston harbor and dumped all of the tea into the ocean. But what most people fail to realize is the great importance behind this protest. To fully understand a topic of history one must first acknowledge the actions behind it. The French and Indian war, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Revenue Act, as well as the Tea Act are all important catalysts of the legendary Boston tea party. Which is why we will discuss these topics before examining the events of the Boston tea party.
In the American colonies on April 19th, 1775, the American colonists were being ruled over by Great Britain. American colonists were being pushed to their breaking points as British generals were sent to America to try to “maintain order”. The colonists wanted nothing more than to be freed from British rule and rid themselves of the taxes that were placed on their heads. The colonists temporarily stopped these taxes once they dumped the British tea into the Boston harbor on December 16th, 1773. Although most of the tea was easily recovered, the message still stood that the American colonies wanted out of the system. The Boston Tea Party is said to be the first official moment where American colonists felt a true sense of pride in their country;
The political structure of America changed dramatically as a consequence of the Revolution. When the colonists were divided by loyalty towards Britain and those who wished for separation, the amount of determination that Patriots had was reflected through powerful spokespeople and pieces of writing. The Pe...
The Boston Tea Party is one of the most explosive and dynamic examples of what affect the common man held on the path to the Revolution. The Tea Party itself was organized by some of the more well-known officials such as John Hancock, but would have had little effect without the men who actually participated in tossing of 90,000 pounds of tea. George Hewes, a prime example of the average man’s affect on the war, had this to say about that fateful night:
Since the tea party movement is such a diverse mixture of groups, there is a large spectrum of ideals within it. Regardl...