NEW YORK — On opening day of the 112th session of the U.S. Congress, the members of the House of Representatives recited the U.S. Constitution. The Republican Party, now the majority, instituted the unprecedented step. The tea party instigated it.
The tea party came to the fore soon after Barack Obama became president of the United States. The "tea" in the name of the movement was explained to mean "taxed enough already." With the obvious reference to the 1773 Boston Tea Party, the participants in the Tax Day rally in Washington, D.C., on April 15, threatened to dump tea bags in one of its parks.
In less than a year, what had appeared to be a fringe expression of discontent with government grew large enough to include a range of identifiable groups of people. "Tea partiers" counted among themselves advocates of opposition to foreign intervention, absolute free trade, and abolishment of the Federal Reserve System; "goldbugs" or believers in the absolute value of gold; evangelicals; and "Atlas Shruggers," the followers of Ayn Rand who condemned government regulations of any kind as evil.