Birth of the Tea Party
It's really difficult to pin down one event that started the recent Tea Party Movement. The theme of "The Boston Tea Party" has been long used by anti-tax protesters. Sometime in early 2009 Conservatives started coalescing around the idea that Federal Growth and Spending was out of control.
In August of 2009, at a "Town Hall" meeting in Philadelphia PA, this nascent movement found it had a voice. At this meeting Senator Arlen Specter (R/D PA) and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius learned first hand what people thought of what would become known as Obamacare and the efforts to shove it down our throats. They quickly realized they would have a tough sell on their hands.
My record of some of the Tea Party events I attended that year is in the links below.
1 - Town Hall Meeting, Arlen Specter @ Lebanon PA
2- Tea Party Express, March and Rally in Washington DC
3 -Tea Party, March and Rally in Harrisburg PA