I confess to being VERY unhappy that a political party is using our beloved camelia sinensis for political gains. This is NOT okay with me. The last time tea was used for political reasons was back in 1773. That was a political decision that I would have been behind! Wikipedia says:
“The Boston Tea Party (initially referred to by John Adams as simply “the Destruction of the Tea in Boston“[2]) was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, a city in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the tax policy of the British government and the East India Company that controlled all the tea imported into the colonies. On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. The incident remains an iconic event of American history, and other political protests often refer to it.” In truth, it was the Tea Act that began this protest and again, according to Wikipedia:
“The Tea Act was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. Its principal overt objective 
was to reduce the massive surplus of tea held by the financially troubledBritish East India Company in its London warehouses and to help the struggling company survive. A related objective was to undercut the price of tea smuggled into Britain’s North American colonies. This was supposed to convince the colonists to purchase Company tea on which the Townshend duties were paid, thus implicitly agreeing to accept Parliament’s right of taxation. The Act granted the Company the right to directly ship its tea to North America and the right to the duty-free export of tea from Britain, although the tax imposed by the Townshend Acts and collected in the colonies remained in force. It received the royal assent on May 10, 1773.”
When I googled wikipedia for the Tea Party Movement, here’s what they had to say:
“The Tea Party movement is an American decentralized political movement that is primarily known for advocating a reduction in the U.S. national debt and federal budget deficit by reducing U.S. government spending and taxes.[1][2] The movement has been called partly conservative,[3] partly libertarian,[4] and partly populist.[5] It has sponsored protests and supported political candidates since 2009.[6][7][8]
The name is derived from the Boston Tea Party of 1773, an iconic event in American history.[9][10][11][12] Anti-tax protesters in the United States have often referred to the original Boston Tea Party for inspiration.[13][14][15] References to the Boston Tea Party were part of Tax Day protests held throughout the 1990s and earlier.[16][17][18][19] By 2001, a custom had developed among some conservative activists of mailing tea bags to legislators and other officials as a symbolic act.” [20]
I, for one, want them to cease and desist. To associate our innocent tea plant by aligning it with this “iconic” event in American history fails to truly honor the intention of the Boston Tea Party. As we are not a political blog, I won’t share my personal feelings about the Tea Party. Suffice it to say – leave our tea plant out this please.
Featured image provided by the author.
My thoughts exactly, Michelle. I was reading the Manchester “Guardian” a day before the shutdown. The tone was disbelief and disrespect. I’m wondering how the rest of the world sees it? As we police the world with military intervention on almost every continent, our leaders refuse to fund the government because they fear the Tea Party. Sick. I’m comforting myself with a large cup of Hattialli. Thanks for posting what we’re all thinking!
And here’s an example of how they combine the two obviously, from Twitter: Delaware Tea Party @deteaparty
Join us at our National Tea Parties in Delaware
Tea parties? Do they actually serve tea?