What really bugs me is the whole "tea party" term being thrown around. Seriously, if you want to be sanctimonious about your alleged patriotism, at least bother to read a bit about American history first.
The Boston Tea Party was not a bunch of colonist who bought tea and then dumped it in the harbor to protest their taxes being too high. It was an act of civil disobedience organized by the Sons of Liberty -- the kind of firebrand liberals that Fox news would label terrorists today as they protest globalization at G20 meetings -- who destroyed tea that was to be taxed (an unfair sales tax ("fair" TM tax, non-income based tax) rather than let fellow colonists buy the tea and pay the tax, thereby continuing the taxation without representation that made the American colonists second class citizens within the British Empire. The Sons wanted to have their elected representatives, acting in the best interests of the American people, levy all taxes. As a historian, I imagine Samuel Adams and John Hancock must be spinning in their graves anticipating tomorrow's "protests."
The Sons of Liberty led a courageous act of civil disobedience, leading risky and menacing protests to keep the East India Company ships from being able to unload their tea. They demanded the tea be returned to the East India Company, and when the Governor refused to allow the tea to be sent back, the band of young protestors sneaked on board the ships in the middle of the night, and threw all the tea into the harbor -- destroying the tea. Their actions prompted the crown to enact the Coersive Acts, which punished all colonists for the acts of a few young ideologues, and had the unintended consequence of strengthening the Sons' arguments that they should be taxed only by their own elected representatives and spurred the revolution.
What did the Sons of Liberty want? Not a revolution, not at the time of the tea incident. They believed that under English Common Law they constitutionally had the right to only be subject to taxation by government officials who they had a role in electing. The Sons were advocating for democracy, and in a democracy we accept that we will sometimes find ourselves in the minority. Everyone we vote for will not win. The Sons of Liberty didn't want to avoid paying taxes to a government in which they could participate, but rather to pay taxes levied by representatives they had elected (or at least had an opportunity to vote in the election).
This stunt tomorrow is about the least American thing I can ever remember happening in our country. A bunch of people, bitter over the outcome of a fair and free election, will go out and buy tea, pay sales tax on that tea, and take it to a "party" where they will dump this imported commodity into a parking lot, and then go home? To what purpose? Who benefits?
Well, no one benefits, except perhaps the minority party. There is no act of civil disobedience, there is no "Give me freedom or give me Death" sort of heroism in the name of Liberty going on here...there are a bunch of bitter people complaining about paying taxes because the guy they voted for didn't win. These people didn't protest fighting a war on credit or a straw doll economy. They are not protesting taxation by representatives they had no say in electing.
Further, the whole idea of the Tea Party originates with the Ron Paul acolytes within the Libertartian movement. They at least sort of got the concept correct. The Republican Party in Florida is at this very moment trying to put into state law a new statute that will effectively keep the Ron Paul grassroots activists out of positions of power and influence within the state Republican Party (by requiring the Chair to approve anyone wishing to run for committeeman/committeewoman positions) -- and yet they are putting on this show of grassroots PR "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore" moments for the news cycle and make it appear that something is being said, and that someone is listening. Whatever.
If someone wanted to do a Tea Party correctly, it might be organized by the Sons of Tourism, who could refuse to pay the bed tax without a right to vote on representatives to the TDC -- and they could hold the Tea Party in the parking lot of Beach Rentals of South Walton, thereby preventing tourists from paying the tax. I mean, if you want to get the concept correct and all....
So, HNooe, I think my protest banner will read, "I hear taxes are pretty low in Haiti, where everyone carries a gun for self defense!" On the reverse it will say, "USA, love it or leave it!"