The Tax Day Tea Party is a national collaborative grassroots effort originally organized by the DontGo Movement (the original/primary sponsor, which is now the American Liberty Alliance), Smart Girl Politics, Top Conservatives on Twitter and many other online groups/coalitions.
The Tea Party protests, in their current form, began in early 2009 when Rick Santelli, the On Air Editor for CNBC, set out on a rant to expose the bankrupt liberal agenda of the White House Administration and Congress. Specifically, the flawed “Stimulus Bill” and pork filled budget.
During Rick’s rant, he called for a “Chicago tea Party” where advocates of the free-market system could join in a protest against out of control government spending.
A few days later, grassroots activists and average Joe Americans began organizing what would soon become the (http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/21/tea-party-usa-the-movement-grows/) Nationwide Chicago Tea Party effort.
On February 27th, an estimated 30,000 Americans took to the street in 40+ cities accross the country in the first nationwide “Tea Party” protest.
Organizers of the February 27th events pledged to continue on with an even bigger and better protest to follow the first. With April 15th being “Tax Day”, it was decided to schedule the second round of Tea Party protests to ride alongside the tax deadline.
And with that, the “Tax Day Tea Party”, the second round of the Nationwide Tea Party protests, moved into reality.
The Tea Party Movement
In the weeks leading up to the 2009, April 15th Tax Day Tea Party, we began experiencing the birth of a fresh grassroots movement. Following the April 15th effort, groups like the American Liberty Alliance, 9/12 Coalition, ResistNet, Smart Girl Politics, Tea Party Coalition, Tea Party Patriots, Oath Keepers and many others witnessed record growth in membership.
During the summer of 2009, these groups worked countless hours and dedicated themselves to putting out information about deadly legislation and townhall events where it was being debated. It’s our belief that the Tea Party Movement played a critical role in stopping, or at least slowing down, several pieces of legislation that are dangerous to our country.
An element of the Tea Party Movement that beltway insiders get red faced about is its self driven, true grassroots foundation. The Movement cannot be controlled, driven, directed, or even calculated. It’s an animal unlike any other in politics, and the typical players of the free-market movement haven’t grasped the nature of the activism behind it.
Many pundits and media heads have claimed the movement has lost its relevancy. We believe we’re just getting started. And in 2010… we intend to prove it.
Political Action
TaxDayTeaParty.com and a handful of the original tea party organizers behind the effort have joined together to create a committee aimed at backing candidates who oppose big government incumbents. The new political action committee is called “Liberty First PAC,” and is helping us transition our efforts in online organizing into offline political action.