It is Tea Party time in America. They started with house meetings. It was right the beginning of the economic crisis. They had complaints. They were afraid. Now they are bringing down candidates of the Republicans one after another. It appears that the Tea party movement has intervened in the course of events in the United States of America. It is like the public decided to determine their future on their own. The attitude shows it. Their appearance on the media also reflects this idea. Their web site is titled Tea Party Patriots; sort of a 'Kuva-yi Milliye' (national forces). If you wonder what is going on in the USA, please join me down in this free-association commentary.

Tea Party movement is named after the Boston Tea Party in 1773 in the years of Independence War. At that time, nationalists have thrown the 'taxed' British tea loaded in ships to the Boston Harbour. They did not want British tea. And they did not want to pay tax to the British government for the tea, either. There was a common belief that it is more proper in terms of 'national and moral values' to use smuggled tea instead. And that was the way it worked, indeed. This was the first explicit action against the British administration. The public was holding their fate at their hands at day, too. The movement was against the British captivity. And the symbol of the British authority was the tea tax imposed by the British government. And nowadays, tea party patriots are mobilized against the Obama captivity. The issue is the same: federal government's intervening in every term of life, its' growing constantly, the possibility of increasing tax rates, huge economic stimulus packages, subsidies and etc. First protests were made in the early 2009 when Obama had just signed the first stimulus package. Nowadays they are messing the candidacy meetings of the Republican Party. They make them select their candidates. They in fact reflect the environment of the 'ocean beyond'. No, I am not talking about him; they reflect the mood on the streets. Let us ignore the recent domestic issues for now.

In fact, we can explain the mood of the streets in the USA with two t-shirt slogans. First is attributed to Thomas Jefferson: "When the people fear their government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty." This is the mood. Along with the economic crisis, the 'small men' in the US are concerned. They are concerned about their future. Since they are concerned, first the men on the street convened in their houses. They decided where to convene online. They still do that. Here is the related web site: www.teapartypatriots.ning.com

But from now on, they are on the streets. They might soon arrive in Boston. There, arriving to Boston in the US is like landing in Samsun. At least it appears so. If the above quotation is not enough, let me give another quotation from Thomas Jefferson: "It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself." This is the case; what Jefferson most dislikes is the government and its intervention in every aspect of his life. And of course its' collecting taxes. There is no Jeffersonian quotation on wiretapping, for instance, which makes sense since there was no cellular phones back then. But I believe the above statement makes clear what he would have said in such a case. He most fears of the pharaoh regime. The environment in the USA nowadays has a Jeffersonian mood. I guess in a way it is him that give life to tea party patriots and that mobilized them.

I believe this is also why 90 percent of the participants said "things would be better with free market" in the latest Transatlantic Trends Survey. The rate for Turkey is 36 percent, for instance. But the mentioned survey also reveals that 69 percent agrees 'governments should have a regulatory role'. The ratio for Turkey is 55 percent. So it appears that only a section beyond the ocean has this idea. Not everyone thinks like the Tea Party Patriots. People beyond the ocean are also polarized, such as in Turkey. One day let me tell you why I think the referendum results reveal two rather than tree divisions. I wonder if you also agree. I still believe that the issue has a deep economic infrastructure. I will tell you as soon as I collect my thoughts.

The second t-shirt slogan is directly related with the economic stimulus packages. It goes with big fonts "We spent 800 billion, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt." The people in the Tea Party Patriots division are at least have the "everyone has got something and I am left out" psychosis. I wonder whether the small man of the Hitler's Germany also had similar thoughts.

In the USA a part of the public, the voters share these thoughts. However, with the measures, unemployment rate was cut by 0.8-1.7 percent. Thanks to the stimulus spending, national income is 2 percent higher. Result: stimulus packages had a positive impact, but this was insufficient. Here comes the expert question, then: Why is it unhappiness only the public feels? Jonathan Baron from Pennsylvania University thinks that this has to do with human psychology: if you take a step for the solution but things go bad after to show you handle the issue, you would be more responsible. But if you do nothing and things to worse because of your inaction, you will be less responsible.

This statement is quite explanatory even for Turkey. Turkey's government showed inaction during the crisis, which intensified the damage. I still think this way. But Honorable Prime Minister is seen as the greatest economist of the country. If you have not, please find and read the commentary in Zaman daily of the day before. It was quite amusing. It successfully showed how followers make their leaders see themselves in the magnifying mirror. Mr. Erdogan obviously has a number of traits, but let us be honest that having a well knowledge about the economy is not one of those. And about the statement by Mr. Baron, now I started to suspect that Mr. Erdogan has talked to Jonathan Baron at one time. He really seems to have done what is politically correct. He minimized our expectations by doing nothing and now we consider the flatness normal and become happy as we gain back what we once lost. This also is a tactic. But not an economic one; a political one. As I also said recently, there is yet no one can hold a candle to him. By the way, it is also apparent that Mr. Baron did not have a talk with Mr. Obama. US people says "We spent 800 billion, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt." Do you think this is why they used to build those huge monuments in pharaoh times? Imagine the Selçuk Erdem caricature: "Yes, we have oppressed you. But, why? This huge temple and the pyramid over there will attract millions of tourist. You hit the jackpot!" Do you think this was the case? But, no. Elections were not a concern back then.

Let me not beat a dead horse. It appears that Tea Party Patriots will put great pressure on Obama and Democrats this year. At least they have the capacity of mobilization. Let us wait and see how successful they will be in elections. Let us see whether or not they will succeed in the House of Representatives.

This commentary was published in Referans daily on 18.09.2010