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Tea Party movement a product of America’s Scots-Irish heritage

Senator Webb says movement comes from the Scots-Irish immigrant culture

ANTOINETTE KELLY,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Saturday, July 16, 2011, 10:04 AM

Updated Saturday, July 16, 2011, 10:04 AM

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Senator Jim Webb (D-VA)

The rise of the Tea Party is closely linked to America’s Scots-Irish heritage, according to Senator James Webb.

The movement has its roots “in the populist-style, bottoms-up democracy that emerged from Scots-Irish migration to America” said the Virginia senator during a recent address to the Washington Ireland Program, at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill.

The group was made up of Catholic and Protestant university students from the 32-counties of Ireland, who are interning this summer throughout Washington.

Webb, a descendant himself of Scots-Irish settlers, who arrived in the U.S. in the 18th century, said “the Tea Party movement is right out of this culture.”

During his address he spoke about the legacies of Scots-Irish migration, such as country music and fundamentalist values of the Bible Belt.

“They vote on issues of dignity — they don’t vote their pocket book,” he said.

“Karl Rove understands this culture completely,” he added. “Democrats don’t even know it exists.”

A former Vietnam marine and successful author, his book “Born Fighting” explores how the Scots-Irish shaped America.
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rpmschevy | Jul 19, 2011, 01:45 AM EDT

Wow springfield, great intelligent comment "I finally know why they don't sell tacos at Tea Party rallies" You have proof, or is all you can drum up are idiotic hate speech?

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OBPiper | Jul 18, 2011, 12:08 AM EDT

"Scots Irish" comes from over there. "Scotch Irish" is what was there (apparently before the language was hijacked by the kirk or the English) and is what it is here in the U.S.A. I descend from some prominent Scotch Irish and know the pivotal role played by them in the Revolution as well as their criminal role in the abuse of Native Americans. There are no perfect people nor perfect ancestors, Mr. Webb as you spider knows.

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pilib04 | Jul 17, 2011, 08:41 PM EDT

Webb forgot to mention that Scots Irish also were founders of the KKK.

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seanomelbourne | Jul 17, 2011, 07:52 PM EDT

Scots Irish what an oxymoronic statement. TheY are embarrased about being Irish and concocted this silly Scots/Irish bull.To be realistic it was the Irish descendants of the Irish territory "Dal Riada "returning home and to add insult to history they stole the land from the native Irish.Next they will tell us they are the lost tribe of Israel.

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joycean | Jul 17, 2011, 07:05 PM EDT

cillowen, They are the distant cousins of NI unionists.They saw themselves as victims of British oppression because, as non-members of the State Church, they were forced to support the COI, and were charged exorbitant rents.On the American frontiers were many thousands of miles of unclaimed land.They could own as much land as they could clear. Pennsylvania was established by the Quakers and was friendly to Dissenters, so many of them settled there and gradually moved West and South.Ironically, while today, NI Unionists want to be British, these cousins hated the British. They made up the bulk of George Wasington's Army and won the American Revolution. When the British invaded again in 1812, a Scot-Irish General and later President, Andrew Jackson chased the British "through the briars" and "the brambles where a rabbit couldn't go, "Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico" (The Battle of New Orleans."

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cillowen | Jul 17, 2011, 06:10 PM EDT

looks like ni thriumphalist brothers. sick proddy.

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Searlit | Jul 17, 2011, 01:02 PM EDT

I read that the War of Independence was fought because the British wanted to take The American Colonies right to print their own currency away. It is believed that Benjamin Franklin felt this way. As for the Scots-Irish, not all of them faired very well here. A large number of them settled in Appalachia and are among the poverty stricken in America. Sad, to say.

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rugbyplayer | Jul 17, 2011, 12:35 PM EDT

Well stated by Senator Webb.

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joycean | Jul 17, 2011, 12:04 PM EDT

The Scots-Irish immigrated to this country mainly between 1710-1775. They include many of America's greatest heroes: Founding Fathers, signers of the Declaration of Independence, early Presidents, but there has been a modern tendency to dismiss then as rednecks and hillbillies.There has also been an erronious assumption that they are so well intergrated into American society that their Irish roots are so distant, that they are hardly a distinct ethnic group any more. They began calling themeslves Scotch- or Scots-Irish after 1845 when the second wave of Irish began arriving. Up until the the Famine, most Irish Catholics immigrated to Canada, not the US.The descenents of those immigrants are referred to as Irish-Americans.Their ancestors came mainly between 1845-1930, when US immigration policies tightened.

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joan1954 | Jul 17, 2011, 09:33 AM EDT

I'm a Texan and many of those of came to Texas searching for land came from the American South and were Scots-Irish. There are two Irish colonial experiences here in South Texas at Refugio and San Patricio and the Mexicans gave land grants to the people who settled there primarily because they were Catholic and were a buffer between the Anglo-Americans (Scots-Irish) and the Mexicans. What they didn't count on is that the Irish of Refugio and San Patricio didn't like tyranny any more than did the Anglo-Americans?

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joycean | Jul 17, 2011, 03:14 AM EDT

Mamaginnty, In 1776,American colonists were angy at British policies in the colonies, particularly taxation without representation in Parliament. They protested a tax on tea coming into the American colonies by boarding ships in Boston Harbor, and dumping the ships' cargo of tea overboard, making "tea" in the harbor.The Boston Tea Party began the American Revolution. Today, people who think they are overtaxed call themselves the Tea (Taxed Enough Already) Party. I think I read there is also an English Tea Party, same reason. Many of the most opposed to British rule in the colonies were Presbyterian immigrants from Ulster whose ancestors had come to Ulster from Scotland, thus Scots-Irish. I'm curious what you find oversimplified, eiriamach.

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Springfield9 | Jul 16, 2011, 02:21 PM EDT

1) I am not Scots-Irish (a euphemism for Ulster Irish) 2) The American Rebels of 1776 had a large contingent of these Ulster Irish - they didn't like taxes - here or there. 3) The "Tea Party" was a Tax Protest cooked up in a Masonic Lodge (over a tavern) in Boston.

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Springfield9 | Jul 16, 2011, 02:18 PM EDT

Splendid!!! I finally know why they don't sell tacos at Tea Party rallies!

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eiriamach | Jul 16, 2011, 01:43 PM EDT

Groannnnn! I can only groan at this facile, simplistic, ignorant distortion of Scots-Irish cultures in the USA. Thanks, mamaginnty, for nailing it.

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mamaginnty | Jul 16, 2011, 12:16 PM EDT

Never heard such codswollop. Never heard of tea party involved with politics till america mentioned it.

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