The Origin of the Tea Party

I don't know how the Tea Party began, but in America it has always been there. We've had, from the start, a segment of our population steeped in ridiculous religious alarmism, in a loathing of job-stealing immigrants, in a sense that our culture or race will be rejected by newcomers, in a certainty that women are inferior, in a belief that new people are mental and moral brutes, in a sense that outsiders hate our liberties, in a hatred for our elected government. 

The political strength of the Tea Party has differed in different eras, but it's always present. It was there among our founding families, who thought those with dark skins were three-fifths of a real person. It was there when Irish women were told they were too apelike to work as servants (no Irish need apply).  From time to time the Tea Party would fully surface--as a political party--and win public office. In the 1850s the American Party or Know-Nothings won three governorships. That period deserves a close look.

In the 1850s our political parties were disintegrating. The voters had lost faith in them. Two new parties formed to fill the void: the Republican Party (based on abolitionism) and the American Party (based on nativism). The Republican Party became dominant. The American (Tea) Party, I guess, eventually found a home among the Southern Democrats, much as the current Tea Party is at home among our current Southern Republicans.

Today our political parties may be disintegrating. The voters have lost faith in them.  The Republican Party, as a leader said the other day, may be falling apart, creating a three party system: a Business Party, a Tea Party and the Democrats, unless the Democrats split, too. It's happened before. It might be happening again. That works for me.