WASHINGTON – The tea party is not just your parent’s party. In the year since the movement began, more young people have joined.
The youth at a rally Thursday said they are tired of being misrepresented in the media.
“A lot of people have had their views swayed by the negative view that the media has put on it without giving it legitimate time to consider what it’s really about,” said Andrew McKellips, 18, from Alexandria, Va. “People think its just a bunch of rebel rousin’, crazy right-wing, bible-thumpin’, conservatives who are just throwing rocks at the president and stuff like that. But it’s much more than that, to me at least. It’s gaining the rights back that are slowly being taken away by the government.”
While the majority of tea party goers are conservative, they say not all are Republican.
“It’s not Republicans, it’s not Democrats, it’s not conservatives or liberals. It’s Americans who are sick and tired of [governmental policies] and I’ve seen everyone of every political thing out here who believes in the same thing,” said McKellips.
While the youth voiced their dissatisfaction with the government, they are in the minority, according to a recent Pew Research survey. Today, 40 percent of those under the age of 30 identify as conservative and 54 percent identify as liberal.
Conservatives at the rally said the tea party movement is growing.
Matthew Clemente, an organizer for FreedomWorks, a group that co-sponsored a tea party rally this week, said he saw an increased interest in conservative politics during the campaign of Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) “I was really surprised at the support that came out of the college community. You know a lot of the people that were going door-to-door and hitting the streets for the conservative movement were college students.”
While the majority of young people lean left on political issues, the percentage of those under 30 who identify as liberal has decreased about 12 percent while those who identify as conservative rose by 10 percent since 2008, according to the poll.
Brandon Peck, 21, also of FreedomWorks, said young people are starting to get engaged more with politics. “They’re starting to become aware and compassionate about fighting what they don’t believe in. And the tea party represents a lot of basic principles that people want to see in government. Transparency, accountability, limited constitutional government, lower taxes, protections of freedoms, namely economic freedoms, because we represent fiscal issues.”
Tea partiers said they plan to increase their lobbying efforts as they head into the 2010 election season.