The Tea Party movement was an American fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party that began in 2009. The movement formed in opposition to the policies of Democratic President Barack Obama and was a major factor in the 2010 wave election in which Republicans gained 63 House seats and took control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Tea Party protesters on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol and the National Mall at the Taxpayer March on Washington on September 12, 2009
The iconic 1846 lithograph by Nathaniel Currier, The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor; the phrase Boston Tea Party had not yet become standard and, contrary to Currier's depiction, few of the men dumping the tea were actually disguised as Native Americans.
A Tea Party protest in Dallas in April 2009
Michele Bachmann, Republican in Congress from Minnesota, 2007 to 2015.
A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some theories of political movements are the political opportunity theory, which states that political movements stem from mere circumstances, and the resource mobilization theory which states that political movements result from strategic organization and relevant resources. Political movements are also related to political parties in the sense that they both aim to make an impact on the government and that several political parties have emerged from initial political movements. While political parties are engaged with a multitude of issues, political movements tend to focus on only one major issue.
The mid-19th century Scandinavism political movement led to the modern use of the term Scandinavia.