Top 131 Tea Party Quotes

The Tea Party movement went off on a more extreme agenda that I did not support at all, and was very frustrated by it, to the point that not only did I change parties, I decided to do something about it and run for Congress.

It’s really interesting that we’ve had this great Tea Party movement that is all about restoring free market capitalist values, but what they completely fail to understand is that what we’ve got now is a situation where there is a small class of gigantic financial companies that have put themselves above capitalism.

I have a message from the Tea Party, a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words. We’ve come to take our government back.

I never went to any Tea Party meetings, although I am fiscally very much in like mind, and grateful for and appreciative of the support of anybody, no matter what group they might be part of.

I think everyday people on the street who have never been affiliated with the tea party movement are alarmed with the spending and the debt that we have.

One of the beauties of the Tea Party movement – and the many, many like-minded citizens that don’t participate in the Tea Party movement – is the fact that it is independent.

I don’t think I would be characterized as a Tea Party candidate; I would be characterized as the most effective candidate.

So, a lot of my supporters back home are members of the Tea Party.

When you stop and look at so much of the kind of activism that has been triggered, the Tea Party and the like, as a result of Obama’s efforts – TARP, the stimulus package, and now the health care reform – there is a lot of sense this government is changing.

We’re movers, forward thinkers, people who get things done. But the Tea Party and Republicans like Bob Dold are holding us back.

Let me tell you what the Tea Party stands for. It stands for the fact that we are taxed enough already.

The most misreported and misunderstood thing about the tea party is its political leanings. The tea party has no political leaning. It stands straight for limited government, low taxes, and liberty for all.

Crossroads is second to none in our support of Tea Party candidates. In 2010 and ’12, we spent over $30 million for Senate candidates who were Tea Party candidates. We spent almost $20 million for House candidates who were Tea Party candidates.

What I owe the Tea Party is to be the conservative voice they elected me to be.

Tea Party people know that I stood against the Wall Street scam from Day One, that I voted against TARP, that I voted against repealing Glass-Steagall Act that kept these guys under some control.

They played Boston. They played at the Boston Tea Party and through an amazing chain of events I got to hang out with them backstage even though I was underage.

The Tea Party is a group that rejects deep thinking, it rejects the very complex analysis that is involved in public policy, it rejects the kind of textured decision-making that Ronald Reagan prided himself on.

The NAACP believes the Tea Party is racist. The Tea Party believes the NAACP is racist.

The Tea Party elites believe government is evil. Everything about government is bad, and they blame all problems, even non-economic problems, problems that were caused by the private sector, on government.

You know, the Tea Party is a – first of all, it is a significant movement, and I think the media and some pundits have tried to write it off as a bunch of cranks or something. But, in fact, it’s really a very legitimate and fairly significant swath of voters out there.

‘Rage’ is the word that most often attaches itself to the Tea Party movement, and it’s true that, from the outside looking in, their public demonstrations appear to be more enraged than any political events in America since the race riots and anti-war protests of the 1960s.

His track record of pragmatism, depth and candor all speak to a person who would find the Tea Party simplistic, opportunistic and misguided. Reagan was surrounded by some very smart people who gave him very sound advice. They were not wondering where certain countries are on the map.

The Tea Party doesn’t like politicians.

My advice to the tea party freshmen: Slow the galloping horses to a trot. Big government was built over decades; it can’t be dismantled in a year, especially when Democrats control the White House.

While most Americans know about the Boston Tea Party, few are aware of the Liberty Tree and how important it was to fanning the flames of rebellion that led to the revolution in 1775 and the Declaration of Independence.

In their political careers, Obama and Biden faced down lobbyists, Tea Party carpetbaggers, and Washington gridlock.

At root, the Tea Party is nothing more than a them-versus-us thing.

Much of what Tea Party candidates claimed about the world and the global economy during the 2010 elections would have earned their adherents a well-deserved F in any freshman economics (or earth science) class.

When the Tea Party comes to town, compromise goes out the door.

First of all, just because the Tea Party people appear to be generally uneducated, ignorant about the political process, ignorant about economics, confused about their own platform from the beginning, and indelicate when it comes to the craft of diplomacy, doesn’t mean they’re wrong.

My presence in the social media and on the Internet is much bigger than many of the other candidates, including Mitt Romney. So, when you take the social media and you take the Tea Party citizens movement, you have a combination there that, quite frankly, 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have had a chance.

I was at St. Louis’s very first tea party and stood across the mighty Mississippi on the Arch steps with a bunch of wide-eyed, virgin protesters who were just as shocked as I was to see the amount of people who had assembled.

The reality of it is I think the GOP – Republicans and certainly conservatives – will partner with the Tea Party movement around this country.

Sometimes people credit me for the Tea Party. It’s actually the other way around.

I think that the tea party, grassroots ideology will win every time.

I always start my discussions with the Tea Party groups with telling them, ‘you know I have only three words for you: God. Bless. You.’ Because the Tea Party’s bringing the Republican party back to a more conservative base.

The Occupy movement needs an organizing principle, and – just as the Tea Party did – it needs some actual measures of success. Choose one candidate whose agenda is squarely within that of the movement and make his or her electoral success a focal point.

I travelled through the night in a bus with the Kentucky Tea Party en route to a massive rally in Washington. For the most part I found them decent, self-reliant, regular Americans who feared the American Dream was now over, not just for them but for their children and grandchildren.

With Washington already broken, the last thing we need is a left-wing version of the Tea Party.

The Texas Republican Party is in many respects like the national party. We have different components that all add value in different ways, whether it’s the Tea Party on fiscal questions, whether it’s the so-called establishment that’s focused on economic development questions, moving states like Texas forward.

The Tea Party emerged from a laudably grassroots base: libertarians, fervent Constitutionalists, and ordinary people alarmed at the suppression of liberties, whether by George W. Bush or Barack Obama.

The Tea Party has imparted political energy to common-sense American constitutionalism.

People are familiar with ‘the stick’ of the Tea Party… challenging incumbents, flooding the phone lines. What they’re not so much familiar with, and what I want to expand, is ‘the carrot.’ So when a Mitch McConnell, or when a Republican caucus stands firm… we have to reward them.

People ask me if I’m the father of the Tea Party movement… I was the spark… that started it.

While the vandals are on the street corners, the Tea Party conservatives, they’re working state houses, the governorships, the mayorships, the Senate, the House.

All previous populist movements were demanding things from governments, whereas the Tea Party is saying, ‘Give us less, go away.’ That’s heartening to see.

The Tea Party in the United States’ biggest fight is with the the Republican establishment, which is really a collection of crony capitalists that feel that they have a different set of rules of how they’re going to comport themselves and how they’re going to run things.

I do think the Tea Party position will prevail, and I am often asked: ‘What has the Tea Party done and is it even still alive?’ People think because there have been no demonstrations with the ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ flag it’s gone, but it hasn’t.

I do think a focus on fiscal restraint is a central element of the Tea Party, and thank goodness for it!

Like all populist movements, the Tea Party will eventually peter out. It won’t succeed in returning America to the minimalist state of the 19th century.

Part of why the Tea Party so deeply threatened the elite media is the tea party looked around and suddenly realized, there are more of us than there are of them.

The Tea Party definitely scored a significant victory with Senator Cruz’s election in 2012 and scored victories in some statewide primaries. But to me, as the Tea Party gets stronger within the Republican Party in Texas, the prospect of a blue Texas becomes stronger and stronger.

The Tea Party is almost solely grassroots-based; business interests have almost no grassroots organization. The Republican Party has for too long been run on behalf of business interests who favor candidates the grassroots hate; the minute that those candidates begin to flag, only loyal Tea Partiers stand behind them.

The problem with the Tea Party is that it’s been used in a way that scares people into supporting an agenda that’s counter to their own interests.

The Tea Party movement started in late 2008 as a rejection of President George W. Bush’s bailout of the auto industry and Obama’s excessive stimulus spending. It evolved into a movement opposed to ObamaCare, and grassroots efforts were employed to find qualified political candidates who could beat incumbents.

Obamacare notwithstanding, the current president’s progressive instincts have been neutered by the rise of the Tea Party and Luddite conservatism.

I know within my organization, within the grassroots of my organization of the Tea Party movement generally, there’s going to be a big drive for impeaching Obama. I don’t know if that’s the right move… We need to play our cards very carefully and beware of the mouse trap that Obama might be trying to set for us.

I think that’s what activates the Tea Party Movement. What they see is the government interfering with their lives and with the inheritance of their children. Are we going to pass down liberty or deficits? And that’s really what this movement is about.

The Tea Party people are ideologues. They are right, and no one can change their minds. There is no reason for compromise.

The Republican Party would be really smart to absorb as much of the Tea Party movement as possible.

I don’t think ‘my way or the highway’ works, that mentality. And that’s what the Tea Party has done: drawn a line in the sand. I’m sorry – that doesn’t work in business, that doesn’t work in your family, it certainly doesn’t work in government and our Congress.

The Tea Party is clearing gunk out of the fuel lines of this country. It started with throwing out Democrats, but the Republicans are going to be next. We’re doing what needs to be done for the sake of the country.

A Tea Party tidal wave is coming.

I think what the Tea Party movement is – I’m all for it; they’re out there fighting for our rights, fighting for what our forefathers stood for.

I think the Tea Party has brought enormous strength to the Republican Party and I absolutely support its fiscal responsibility message, yes.

The Tea Party isolated Mitt Romney from mainstream voters, linking him to a rabid ideology that he could not shake as he desperately tried to move to the middle in the closing weeks of the campaign. Lesson: The loudest voices don’t often command the votes needed to win in November.

One thing Republican leaders, regardless of whether they love us or they hate us, have got to understand is there’s no way in hell there will ever be another Republican president without the active engagement of the Tea Party masses and support of the Tea Party masses.

I think others may look at the uniqueness of my candidacy, the fact that I’m an African-American, conservative tea party Republican, and somehow race injects itself into the conversation.

Unlike the Tea Party, who see themselves as the customers of government, people in the Occupy Wall Street movement understand that we are the government. Stated most simply, we are trying to run a 21st-century society on a 13th-century economic operating system. It just doesn’t work.

The similarities are limited but real. They amount to a shared disgust with politics as usual in America. The Tea Party focuses on the federal government; Occupy Wall Street focuses on corporate America and its influence over the government.

Internet companies created the social-media tools that fueled the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street insurgencies, and that have helped political candidates rally grass-roots support.

I’ve long thought that Marco Rubio would make a strong G.O.P. candidate for president. While he was brought into office by surfing on the Tea Party wave, he has proven himself not to be wedded to the frequent lunacy of those folks.

The tax issue is the most powerful issue in American politics going back to the Tea Party.

A lot of what you have seen with third-party groups – like the Tea Party – these folks are conservative, and they are fed up with people in Washington who are not working for them but against them.

The only tactic liberals have is to try to intimidate people into thinking that the Tea Party is racist. The Tea Party is not a racist movement, period! If it were, why would the straw polls keep showing that the black guy is winning? That’s a rhetorical question. Let me state it: The black guy keeps winning.

The tea party wants to empower people with opportunity and the freedom for the individual to pursue success and keep the fruits of their success.

The Tea Party ended up being a shill for corporate America.

You combine the Tea Party along with our support with the Republican base and grassroots, and it makes for a winning combination.

Generations of devoted American history buffs have spent countless hours reading and writing long books about the American Revolution without ever having come across the name of Dr. Thomas Young. Yet it was Young who came up with the idea for the original tea party – the one in Boston Harbor.

The Tea Party is simply a loose description of local activism driven by Americans who want smaller government and more self-reliance. That sounds like what the Founding Fathers had in mind, does it not?

Is Romney a tea party candidate? I’d probably say that he’s the least of the candidates running for president right now that would be considered a tea party candidate.

It requires some intelligent reframing to make people see commonalities that they don’t otherwise see. To me, the Tea Party and the Occupy movement are, in many ways, saying the same thing, but it requires a bit of imagination to get people to see that.

Blame the Tea Party? Geez, no wonder Kerry did so well in an election. If it wasn’t for the Tea Party, they would have passed the debt ceiling thumbs up; we would have been rated BBB.

If the Tea Party gets its way, there will be less government – which is great for the elites. They don’t need the government.

My biographer said that my parties reminded them of a vicarage tea party, with sex thrown in.

It’s not all Obama’s fault: His plans to rebuild America’s energy infrastructure have been hampered by the recession, and his efforts on global warming have been stymied by Tea Party wackos and weak-kneed Democrats in Congress.

This nation has been through hard times. But those hard times have hardened our resolve. I’m ready to do the difficult work ahead. But I want to do that work with Barack Obama, and not a Tea Party ideologue. We can move America forward, but we can only do it together.

I mean, people who say that the Tea Party isn’t a grassroots movement, I think, are incorrect. I think in some respects, it is a grassroots movement.

The way to lessen the grip of the Tea Party on the electoral process would be to do what a handful have done and have a primary where all voters, members of every party, can vote, and the top two vote-getters then enter a runoff.

I was gone so much in my first marriage. I love the moments when I engage with my youngest daughter now. It’s not my thing to sit on the ground and play tea party, but I’ll do it because it’s a moment that will stick with me forever.

First of all, do I think there’s some racists in the Tea Party? Yeah. I’m an ordained United Methodist pastor; there’s some racists in the Methodist church. I don’t know if there’s a body that does not have some racists in it.

The Tea Party movement is a wide and diverse group. It will hurt the Republican Party if some elements of the Tea Party decide to become third party advocates because it will split the conservative vote.

This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can’t be frightened. And as far as I’m concerned, the Tea Party can go straight to hell.

The beauty of the tea party movement is that it is independent and thus a true check and balance of the Republican and Democrat parties. It’s not a pawn of the GOP, thus untouchable in criticism of the Democrats – I view it as an unattached conscience of the Republican party.

I think we have a rawer version of capitalism and a more fragile community and family base than other nations. We are a more individualistic culture. From the Boston Tea Party on, we’ve had too little faith in government.

On the issues the Tea Party cares about, I land right in their bull’s-eye.

The Tea Party has definitely increased political involvement, not only among Tea Party members but among people who oppose the Tea Party members. It’s been a general stimulus.

And my principles go right in line with the Tea Party.

It was widespread that the politics of Tea Party people would be foreign to Ronald Reagan and they would be seen by him as frivolous and uninformed.

I liken myself to a little girl having a tea party at the house all of the time. I actually dress up more in my home than I do walking down the street just because it is so much fun to play dress up.

We’ve got to keep an eye on the battle that we face – a war on workers. And you see it everywhere. It is the Tea Party. And there’s only one way to beat and win that war – the one thing about working people is, we like a good fight.

If 2,000 Tea Party activists descended on Wall Street, you would probably have an equal number of reporters there covering them.

I received endorsements from Tea Party to moderates alike. And I think that’s unique, and that’s something I’m proud of.

I ran for office originally as part of this Tea Party Movement because we were upset with Republicans who’ve doubled the debt. We were upset with Republicans that bailed out the banks.

2010 was sort of this shock and shift in congress, with the real emergence of the Tea Party.

Tea Party sympathizers are more conservative on abortion policy than typical Republicans.

The myopic obsession of the Tea Party with destroying health care reform and wounding the president has led Republicans astray.

The Tea Party is an organic, spontaneous movement that rose up in opposition to to the Pelosi-Reid-Obama agenda.

I was Tea Party years before there was an official Tea Party.

Well, first of all, I think that a lot of the voters who are voting for the tea party candidates have really good impulses. That is, they believe that for years and years and years, the people with wealth and power or government power have done well and ordinary people have not. That’s true.

The Tea Party was regularly smeared in media as a violent, bigoted, ‘astroturf’ movement hellbent on opposing the first black president because of his skin color rather than his big-government policies. These classifications were made without evidence, and there were many more.

People are unhappy with the direction of the country – we saw that with the rise of the Tea Party; we saw that when we had thousands of people at the statehouse in Concord, New Hampshire, protesting the government with more taxes and more spending.

One way the Tea Party has benefited female candidates – and the conservative movement generally – is by consciously steering clear of social issues.

If being the lightning rod that started the Tea Party is what’s written on my tombstone, I’ll be very happy.

The tea party movement and its passion arose in response to trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see and out of a sense that Washington is in need of dire fiscal reform.

As the Republicans run to the crazy Tea Party right, they leave behind the huge mass of genuinely moderate and independent Americans that make up the majority of voters. The ones that used to consider themselves now-extinct moderate Republicans. They’re up for grabs. And the Democrats have to grab them!

As in nature, politics abhors a vacuum. Without a strong voice for more moderate leadership, the Tea Party is filling that vacuum.

Do we want our state to be defined by the bankrupt and intolerant values of Donald Trump? Do we want the values of hyperpartisanship and obstruction that we see in the tea party Congress that Steve Pearce has embraced?

I think there is a real misunderstanding about what the Tea Party movement is. The Tea Party movement is a sentiment in America that government is broken – both parties are to blame – and if we don’t do something soon, this exceptional country will be lost, and it will become just like everybody else.

Tea Party adherents are actually more religion-driven and more anti-abortion than the party they are supposedly upending.

Voters did say ‘repeal health care’, they did say ‘reduce the size of government.’ But not a single one of them from the tea party or anywhere said ‘give tax breaks to the wealthiest.’

I am righteous and righteously indignant, the Tea Party is righteously indignant, and our goal is to not just save the country, but quite frankly, if America goes, so goes the world, so in our desire to save the country, we are trying to save the world.

There’s a lot of things we can do to balance out what Obama’s done and going forward show the American people the Republican Party can govern. I want a coalition of tea party people, independents, moderate Democrats trying to find a way to move this country forward before we become Greece.

But to say that Sarah Palin and the tea party movement is responsible for vandalism or threats is just a way to dismiss the American people and, and their dissatisfaction with this health care bill.

People are starting to notice the great divide. The Tea party sees the aloofness in a political elite that thinks it knows best and orders the rest of America to fall in line. The Occupy movement sees it in an economic elite that lives in mansions and flies on private jets.

Beating the tea party gang is more important than who does the beating.

Unfortunately, the Republican leadership in the House right now seems to have been strangled by the tea party.

I’ve never attended any Tea Party functions.

In America today, unfortunately, the right wing has been totally commandeered by the Tea Party, and it’s a bad thing for our party.

In many respects, I guess I would say I was into Tea Party before there was a Tea Party.

In a democracy, you don’t need anyone’s permission to form a new political party, publish a politically charged article, or organize a ‘tea party.’ And in open markets, individuals are free to buy and invest as they see fit.