The movement chose the wrong historical precedent when it selected the Boston Tea Party of 1773, a genuinely revolutionary event, as its symbol. Todays Tea Party movement is much more like the misguided and ill-fated Whiskey Rebellion of the early 1790s, during the first term of Americas first president, George Washington.
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When Congress in 1791, at Hamiltons suggestion, enacted an excise tax on whiskey, along with a tariff, to help pay down the consolidated national debt, the result was the Whiskey Rebellion.
From Tea Party or Whiskey Rebellion?
There are two problems with this analogy:
- They are rebelling with the people who proposed the bailout, not against it.
- Taxes have gone down, not up.
Other than that, I like the comparison.
