Boston Tea Party (political party)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Boston Tea Party
Thomas L. Knapp, founder, spokesperson
Douglass Gaking, Chair
Seat currently open, Secretary
Founded	2006
Membership  (2008)	806
Ideology	Libertarianism
Website
bostontea.us

Part of the Politics series on

Libertarianism

Origins and history Austrian School Chicago School Classical liberalism Individualist anarchism Liberalism

Theory and ideals Counter-economics Dispute resolution organization Economic freedom · Free market Free market environmentalism Free society · Free trade Free will · Freedom of association Freedom of contract Homestead principle Individualism Individualist feminism Laissez-faire Liberty · Limited government Methodological individualism Natural rights Night watchman state Non-aggression Non-interventionism Non-politics · Non-voting Polycentric law · Property Private defense agency Self-governance · Self-ownership Spontaneous order Stateless society Subjective theory of value · Tax resistance Title-transfer theory of contract Voluntary association Voluntary society

Schools Agorism · Anarcho-capitalism Autarchism · Christian Classical liberalism · Consequentalist Conservative · Constitutionalist Crypto-anarchism · Deontological Free market · Geolibertarianism Green · Individualist anarchism Left-wing · Minarchist · Mutualist Paleolibertarianism · Panarchist Propertarian · Right-wing Thick and thin · Voluntaryism

Topics Anarcho-capitalism and minarchism Controversies · Criticisms Libertarian movement Political parties Theories of law · Views of rights

Related topics Anti-state · Anti-war Civil libertarianism Civil societarianism Constitutionalism Constitutional republic Fusionism Libertarian Christianity Libertarian conservatism Libertarian Democrat Libertarian Republican Libertarian socialism Libertarian transhumanism Limited government Market liberalism Objectivism Small government Small-l libertarianism Ultraliberalism

Libertarianism portal Philosophy portal Politics portal

v • d • e

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 of the Boston Tea Party.^[3][4] 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 may have contributed to the loss by the incumbent.^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 Platform 2 History 3 Notes 4 External links

[edit] 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]

[edit] 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 2,422 votes, putting him in 15th place ^[17]. The party endorsed independent Libertarian George Phillies and his running mate in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.[3]

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• The Boston Tea Party — Official website