The Tea Party that we got after Obama took office is a complete embarrassment. The American Revolution was fought in part because of the principle of no taxation without representation. When the Koch brothers funded the establishment of the “alternative grassroots” movement that put a bunch of racist libertarian sociopaths in Congress, they collapsed this principle to simply “no taxation”. If the government spends less of your money, then you will be more likely to get rich. That’s a pretty good populist line.
It’s bullshit, obviously, but it is a good line.
What we should have instead is a tea party about representation. A tea party about the voting rights act being allowed to expire. A tea party about the closing of thousands of voting sites. A tea party about the electoral college. A tea party about campaign finance reform. A tea party about lobbyists. A tea party about gerrymandering. A tea party about term limits. A tea party about conflicts of interest. A tea party about limiting greed and the concentration of power in our governing body. A tea party about making our votes matter again.