The Tea Parties are widely and correctly seen as a conservative uprising against President Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress. But beneath the surface there is an undercurrent of discontent toward President George Bush and Republicans as well, as this CNN story suggests.
At the first Tea Party in Rhode Island, for example, organizers displayed a banner with the headline: “The Biggest Spending Program In the History of Mankind.” Most of these programs were the infamous bailouts: $29.5 billion for Bear Stearns, $97.4 for the auto industry, $300 billion for homeowners, $700 billion for TARP—the Troubled Asset Relief Program. But domestic spending was not the only fiscal grievance. The Iraq War, at nearly $600 billion, made the cut too.
All this happened not under a Democratic presidency, but rather a Republican administration. In fact, there was only one Obama program on the list and it was at the bottom—the $787 billion economic stimulus bill.
To be sure, the Tea Partiers kept their power dry until Bush left office. So there is a partisan coloring to this movement, but at its core it is a non-partisan reaction to this brave new era of big government ushered in at the behest of both Republicans and Democrats. Unfortunately, until winner-take-all laws are changed, there will be no third-party outlet for all this populist furor.