Ron Chernow:
LIKE many popular insurgencies in American history, the Tea Party movement has attempted to enlist the founding fathers as fervent adherents to its cause. The very name invokes those disguised patriots who clambered aboard ships in Boston Harbor in December 1773 and dumped chests of tea into the water rather than submit to the hated tea tax. At Tea Party rallies, marchers brandish flags emblazoned with the Revolutionary slogan “Don’t Tread on Me” while George Washington impersonators and other folks in colonial garb mingle with the crowds.
via www.nytimes.com
By disrupting supply and raising tea prices, didn't the original tea party impose a tax? Maybe then a slight rise in energy prices is constitutional?
And, as a political aside, the rest of the piece provides a nice history on why the current Tea Party has some misunderstandings about the founding fathers (e.g., Hamilton [my current fav] vs Jefferson).
