Would it be fair to say that one of the most covered political stories over the past few years has been the rise of the Tea Party? I think so. And yet, one question that rarely seems to occur among those in the media who have covered this story is "why now?" That is, why did the Tea Party come about when it did and not at some other time?

Those in the Tea Party (i.e., teabaggers) typically claim that their primary agenda concerns what they perceive as excessive taxation. That is what the name of their party is supposed to reference: TEA for taxed enough already. The problem is that taxes are at the lowest level they have been since 1958.

You would never know it from listening to teabaggers, but we Americans are significantly under-taxed. Perhaps the emergence of the Tea Party has more to do with the perception of taxes rather than the reality, a perception intentionally distorted by corporate-owned media.

Of course, many observers have pointed out that the rise of the Tea Party just happened to coincide with the election of our first Black president. The racist overtones that have accompanied the Tea Party from the beginning are probably not coincidental.

H/T to Think Progress

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