At a recent Tea Party convention Feb. 6 people were dressed up in colonial costumes bearing patriotic protest signs. Photo courtesy of Newsweek.

“Tea Partyers are just a bunch of crazy, right-wing ‘nut jobs’ like Sarah Palin.  I don’t know why anyone is actually taking them seriously.”  But I know why the populace is recognizing the increasing importance of the American tea party movement—because the people are sending politicians in Washington a message.

Many of those who still sing President Obama’s praises dismiss tea parties as extreme and radical.  Why is it that the president and his supporters only listen to those who agree with them?  Of all people, a president shouldn’t be a selective viewer. Without so much as an acknowledgement of Tea Partyers, I wonder who President Obama claims to represent.

The Tea Party movement began almost a year ago when a group of Americans from coast to coast united under the principles of “fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free markets.”

The movement considers itself to be non-partisan and advocates a return to the ideas that founded America.  Nor are there any stereotypes in the group.  In fact, many participants weren’t politically active before and some have never even voted.

One unlikely participant is Keli Carender, who the New York Times says “has a pierced nose, performs improv on weekends and lives here in a neighborhood with more Mexican grocers than coffeehouses.”  Like many, Carender became disillusioned with exorbitant and unnecessary government spending.

Participants are troubled by the unprecedented expansion of government under the Obama Administration, ranging from the “stimulus” package to current plans for socialized healthcare reform.  In a country still being tested by the pangs of economic woe, Americans are now trying to appeal to the last thing they know to stop irresponsible spending and end radical legislation—patriotism.

Tea Party conventions intend to unite Americans upset by runaway government spending and pressure the government to listen to them.

Tea Party conventions, like the most recent one held at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center in Nashville on Feb. 6, were full of people dressed up in colonial costumes bearing patriotic protest signs, such as the banner of a snake, which read “Don’t Tread on me.”  Other signs of patriotism included the display of American flags and posters decrying the “change” President Obama’s first year in office has brought to the country.

Recent tea parties are reminiscent of the Boston Tea Party held in 1773 to protest against the new British tax on tea shipped to the American colonies.  Like patriots prior to the revolutionary war, Tea Partyers want to protest what they view as an overstepping of government authority.

Ironically, one of the first contemporary tea parties was held last year, April 15 in Boston Common, which lies only a few blocks away from the site of the original Boston Tea Party.

It’s strange that a movement which should intrinsically appeal to all Americans through its mission is actually dismissed with arrogant disgust and condescending laughter, perhaps by those who seem to think themselves above patriotism.  Or maybe it’s that those who mock the movement see Tea Party-goers as blasphemers of patriotic slogans and principles?

This would make perfect sense if the federal government were planning programs to decrease taxes and lower the deficit; cutting economic regulation and opening markets; encouraging privatization and cutting wasteful spending; fixing problems and responding to the American public—but it’s not!

So next time someone jeers at a tea party, you’ve got to ask yourself the question: “should limited government and capitalism no longer be priorities or were the Founders just right-wing wackos?”

Some wonder if the Tea Party movement will survive. But the Tea Party movement has had a presence in the U.S. since the years leading up to the War of Independence.  Maybe protests against excessive government intervention and for a return to basic American principles weren’t always called “The Tea Party” movement, but their goals were the same as they are today.

No matter when, Americans will always want to preserve the values upon which their country was founded.  Will Tea Partyers be irrelevant next year or in a decade?  No, because patriotism will never be irrelevant.