by Eric Dondero

The roots of the Tea Party at its core, stem from the annual Tax Day protests sponsored by the Libertarian Party going back decades. Way back in the late 1970s, Libertarians would gather on April 15, in localities across the Nation and wave signs calling for the Abolishment of the IRS, and other Anti-Tax slogans. The protests became a fixture at Post Offices each Tax Day.

Some further background:

• As far back as 2006, a renegade Libertarian Party group, broke with the LP for perceived moderation of National LP leaders and formed a rival organization called "Boston Tea Party." The name was picked up by other Libertarians. And some have credited the use of that term with the launching of the national Tea Party movement.

• Throughout 2008, Libertarian Party members were calling for nationwide "Tea Party like" protests against Bush's bailouts and TARP.

• The very first Tea Party protests organized in 2008 and early 2009 (most especially Denver and Seattle), were formed by the Libertarian Party and the Campaign For Liberty, supporters of 1988 Libertarian Presidential candidate and 2008 GOP Presidential contender Ron Paul.

• The first unofficial leader/organizer of the burgeoning Tea Party movement was Eric Odom, at the time an Executive Board member of the Libertarian Party of Illinois.

Now, surprise, surprise. A government-funded institution for learning, the University of South Florida (St. Pete), has come out with a major study that finds, the Tea Party movement does not emenate or comfortably coincide with the Republican Party, but rather it's more of a Libertarian Party movement.

Yet, in their entire report, the government-funded institution doesn't even mention the Libertarian Party by name, nor give the 37-year old third party any credit.

From The Hill "Tea Parties not beholden to GOP":

A poll released Saturday depicts the Tea Party movement as a staunchly libertarian group that is unhappy with both political parties, suggesting that the group is still not sold on voting for Republicans in the fall.

From TampaBay.com "Deficit stirs up the tea party":

A new national survey portrays the tea party movement as largely Ross Perot-style libertarians, who are almost as unhappy with Republicans as they are with Democrats.

The polling runs counter to popular perceptions of tea partiers as either a wing of the Republican Party or as people from the cultural fringes who are mad at almost everything.

The movement, all agree, is not attracting many social conservatives. "We're not seeing right-to-lifers or Christian fundamentalists," [study co-author] O'Neal said. "We're seeing a lot of libertarians."

And this further info:

People were asked if they considered themselves part of the tea party movement. Overall, 17 percent of those called said they did. Of that group, 57 percent called themselves Republicans; 28 percent said they were independents; 13 percent were Democrats.

Two-thirds claimed to be conservatives, 26 percent were moderates, and 8 percent called themselves liberal.

Okay, you would think then, that the story line which would logically follow would be that the Republican Party is in danger of losing votes on its limited government Right flank to the Libertarian Party in 2010 elections. After all, a near 1,000 candidates are planning to run for local, state and national offices on the LP ticket in 2010; 200 in Texas alone.

But no. The liberal media ignores that angle, choosing instead to focus in on the problems in general the GOP will have in winning over these voters. Continuing from The Hill:

The survey indicates that Republicans still have more work to do to woo Tea Party voters to their side in November... Tea Partyers are still wary of shacking up with the Republicans. Several third-party and insurgent Republicans are running in primary races across the country against more established GOP candidates.

There's a simple explanation: The liberal media is loathe to report on anything about the Libertarian Party. Doing so, automatically shifts the political spectrum to the limited government Right.

Republicans want tax relief? Well, the Libertarian Party wants to slash taxes across the board, and abolish the IRS.

Republicans want Social Security reform? Well, the Libertarian Party wants to abolish S.S.

Republicans want Charter Schools, Educational Choice and greater Parent participation in schooling? Libertarians want to privatize public Eduction altogether and eliminate all compulsory Public School Attendance laws.

It's easy to see why it would not be advantageous for the liberal media to give any play to the Libertarian Party. The Libertarian Party makes Republicans look downright moderate.

Thus, we have the absurdity of the Tampa Bay Tribune, and the respected Beltway publication The Hill, coming out with a survey finding admitting that the Tea Party is "libertarian," but not even mentioning the Libertarian Party at all.

Note - standard disclaimer on Ron Paul applies: absolutely fantastic on domestic issues, particularly free market economics; we disagree wholeheartedly with his foreign policy.