Reading Tea Leaves: What 1,331 Protest Placards Tell Us About the Tea Party Movement

We use protest signs to identify the main issue concerns, heroes, villains, and symbols of the American Tea Party, as well as to gain some insights into its demographics and its mobilizing frames. Based on a content analysis of 1,331 signs carried by Tea Party demonstrators at one rally in Washington, DC, on April 15, 2010, we conclude that the Tea Party movement is above all concerned with economic issues. It is far closer to a wing of the Republican Party than it is to an independent social movement with bipartisan appeal. Social issues are comparatively insignificant, as is race. The mobilizing frame is a restoration of America to a lost greatness via lower taxes and smaller government.