The Rise and Fall of the TEA Party

On February 19, 2009, in the wake of the umpteenth government attempt at stimulating a broken economy, CNBC commentator Rick Santelli unknowingly set off a powder keg of protest when he told viewers, "We're thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July All you capitalists that want to show up to Lake Michigan, I'm going to start organizing "Barely a week later, a group of a few dozen otherwise average Americans heeded Santelli's rant and created their own TEA Parties. By that April, protests were underway in hundreds of cities around the nation and before two years had elapsed the TEA Party had shifted the entire political equation, overcoming a President who had swept into office with a mandate for fundamental change and a massive majority in Congress to carry it out.Because it was, at its heart, a grassroots effort to restore the people's voice and eventually rightsize the federal government to a more Constitutional size and scope, I was a very willing participant in the TEA Party when it came to my adopted hometown of Salisbury, Maryland in April, 2009. As a participant in the political process thanks to my elected office, I was right there to watch how it affected government, and as a blogger and political writer I observed how the TEA Party became perceived by average people in my hometown.By the summer of 2016, though, I was completely disillusioned with the political scene, in part because of the unfulfilled promise of the TEA Party. Once I resigned my political post in August of that year I began writing The Rise and Fall of the TEA Party. Originally its premise was the belief that Donald Trump had killed the TEA Party, but - as I found out in the many hours of reading and research that have gone into this book - it was those disaffected folks who were once true TEA Party believers that came out of the woodwork and carried enough states to put Donald Trump into office. A group without a leader found a leader who didn't have a political group to back him, and the marriage lasted long enough to elect a President.But reading and research wasn't all. In the process of writing I reached out to a number of those who were among the earliest organizers of the TEA Party, pressing them for their thoughts and recollections. Their input is the most valuable resource in making this a comprehensive overview of the TEA Party movement, which truly started months before Santelli spoke and continues to influence the political world today - but not in the way you may think. The Rise and Fall of the TEA Party is updated through the 2018 midterms and beyond, making it a relevant volume to understand our current political scene.I'll close this description with a quote from onetime Tea Party Express president Mark Williams, one of a number of early leaders I interviewed for this book: "The author interviewed me (among others) for this book. I have read the galley and it is a very good analysis of what happened. He also walks a tight line of impartiality and tells the story from the point of view of someone who is examining an object of curiosity. It's a well-done, fair work of recent history. I would highly recommend it as a read."I hope you'll agree. And I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that there's a payoff at the end of the book: the idea for where to begin with TEA Party version 3.0.