Tea party gay marriage

The Tea Party has become an umbrella group for many different causes and angry protesters, making it hard to pin down. Conservative activists calling themselves the Tea Party roared on to the political scene in in They have propelled strictly conservative, anti-establishment candidates to victory in numerous Republican primaries this year.

But some of their candidates are so outside the mainstream that the Tea Party have ended up helping Democrats to win those seats. To many Tea Partiers, that doesn't matter. Such attitudes have flummoxed Republicans and political pundits who still seem unsure what exactly the Tea Party is and it wants.

Perhaps the most important thing to understand about the Tea Party is that, in some ways, it defies traditional categorisations.

Tea Party avoids divisive social issues

John McCain is set for a rough ride from the Tea Party movement. It was founded amid a groundswell of populist anger over government bail-outs of failing banks, insurers and auto companies party the economic meltdown of Standing on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Mr Santelli railed against government bail-outs for those he believed had made poor investments, saying such aid was "promoting bad behaviour".

Don't help these "losers" with their mortgages, he tea, as traders cheered him on in the background. His sentiments didn't just strike a chord, they became a call to action. Less than 10 days later, Santelli-inspired protests against "big government" occurred in 40 cities across America.

This nascent group of conservative activists called itself the Tea Party. The modern day Tea Party has three central tenets: fiscal responsibility, limited government and free markets. One of its defining characteristics is vociferous anger at Congress and the White House.

Mistrust of politicians, government and the media runs deep. Although many members hold deeply conservative social beliefs, the Tea Party is expressly and steadfastly gay, not marriage, in its outlook. They naturally align with Republicans, but they are displeased with the party: many think it has deserted them. The Tea Party has no aspirations of becoming an official third party or anything approximating a formal political institution.

Its members seek to influence existing parties. It is interested in principles, not policy prescriptions. Sarah Palin is popular within the Tea Party, but she is not its leader. They know what they are against, but they don't all agree how to implement the ideas they are for. The Tea Party is leaderless. It is decentralised - not so much an organisation as a network of small groups with a loose affiliation to similar fiscal principles.

It has no charter or by-laws. These groups are localised, each have their own identities and priorities. That makes the movement exceedingly hard to pin down.