Boston Tea Party (political party)
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The Boston Tea Party is an American political party which espouses a libertarian ideology. The party was founded in 2006 by a group of former Libertarian Party (LP) members led by Thomas L. Knapp, who criticized the LP for its "abdication of political responsibilities", saying that "Americans deserve and desperately need a pro-freedom party that forcefully advocates libertarian solutions to the issues of today."¹

On September 11, 2008, the libertarian website LewRockwell.com posted an article by libertarian economist Walter Block, in which the author proclaimed his preference for the candidates of the Boston Tea Party over those of the LP.² Block and other libertarians have expressed discomfort over the "unlibertarian" history of the LP's 2008 presidential candidate, Bob Barr, a former Republican congressman.

The party ran over 30 candidates for various offices around the country.^{citation needed} The party claimed that two members now hold office. However, one former elected official stated, but later recanted, that he is in fact not a member and that the Boston Tea Party.³⁴ His term officially expired Dec. 30, 2008. The other elected official has categorically denied ever being associated with the Boston Tea Party.⁵ In the race for Kansas State Senate district 2, the party endorsed Patrick Wilbur, whose 5% of the vote threw the race from the incumbent.^{citation needed}

Platform

The Boston Tea Party's platform is one sentence long and expresses the party's philosophy of anti-statism:

The Boston Tea Party supports reducing the size, scope and power of government at all levels and on all issues, and opposes increasing the size, scope and power of government at any level, for any purpose.⁶

The party's platform is supplemented by a program which advocates, among other things, the withdrawal of all American troops from around the world, including Korea, Japan, Europe and the entire Middle East; an immediate and complete end to warrantless searches and seizures, warrantless surveillance, and other practices that encroach on personal freedom; and an audit of the Federal Reserve.⁷ The program was deliberately adopted from Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty.⁸

History

The party was founded by Thomas L. Knapp in response to the Libertarian Party eliminating most of the substance of its party platform at their Oregon convention in 2006.⁹ Knapp served as the party's first chair until its 2006 convention. The second chair of the party, elected in the 2006 party convention, was Tom Blanton.¹⁰

The third chair of the party was James Eric Davidson. Under his leadership the party formed twelve state affiliates and grew to over 500 members.¹¹ The party held its presidential nominating convention for 2008 in June. The party held its national convention in October.¹² During the party's October convention, Jason Gatties was elected its fourth chair. He resigned in November for personal reasons and was replaced in a special election by vice chair Douglass Gaking.

Charles Jay, 47, was the party's presidential nominee for the 2008 general election in which he was on the ballot in Florida, Tennessee and Colorado; those states provided 10% of the popular vote in 2004.¹³ Also, he was a write-in candidate in more than 10 other states.¹⁴ Thomas L. Knapp was the party's vice presidential nominee.¹⁵ Knapp was also a candidate for U.S. Congress as a Libertarian Party candidate in the same election.¹⁶ However, alternate running mates included Marilyn Chambers (Arkansas, Hawaii, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah), Barry Hess (Arizona), Dan Sallis, Jr. (Colorado), John Wayne Smith (Florida) and Thomas J. Marino (Washington).[1][2]

In the 2008 Presidential Election, the Boston Tea Party's candidate Charles Jay received 2,346 votes, putting him in 15th place out of the 24 candidates listed by CNN.¹⁷ The party endorsed independent Libertarian George Phillies and his running mate in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.[3]

Notes

External links

• The Boston Tea Party — Official website