With the recent emergence of the coffee movement to challenge the tea party movement the battle of the breakfast beverages is underway. The coffee movement is the spontaneous answer to the somewhat maligned tea party movement.
The coffee movement fashions themselves as a more progressive version of the tea party wanting bigger but better government it is a contradiction in terms. The founding father Thomas Paine made one of the most absolute statements on government when he said” the government who governs best governs least”.
However I think there is a deeper political connection between these two movements. First the tea party movement is inspired by the Boston tea party one of the events that was the precursor to the American Revolution. in many ways the coffee movement shares the idealistic vision and goals of the most bloody of the revolutions the French revolution. Coffee was a key component and very popular drink in French salons that spread the ideals of French revolutionaries. The American Revolution at its focus was a fight for individual liberty and the right for self-determination. These are several of the key ideals that tea party movement is trying to emulate today.
Conversely the only thing that came out of the French revolution was the bloody terror of France. The only terror we have to fear today is increasing power of the government bureaucracy . Although some of the ideals that both movements profess our universal such as freedom and liberty and equality. It will be interesting to see who wins the ideological struggle , tea or coffee anyone.