Boston's Real Tea Party: A Polite Counter-Protest

Image by C. Fernsebner of Boston's Tweed Ride. This is may not be the proper attire for a tea party, but it is close enough.
We all know that Sarah Palin will be bringing her big hair, tortured syntax, scrawl-covered hands, and legion of racist militia members to Boston this month for a "Tea Party," but what, if anything are we going to do about it? The members of b0st0n.livejournal have cooked something up: Throw a real tea party!

The Real Boston Tea Party already has a Facebook page and a manifesto. Its participants are going to cosplay an actual 19th century tea party on the Boston Common while Palin and her teabaggers scream and yell about Obama's African American stormtroopers who are forcing their children with cancer to enroll in health insurance for the first time.

There are a few hang-ups. Since there hasn't been a 19th century tea party for the past 100 or so years, nobody has the right clothes for it. Thankfully, the organizers have offered a way out:

Everyone should attempt to dress to the nines, or, if you can't do that, at LEAST to the four-and-a-halves. Of course, TECHNICALLY, one shouldn't go to a tea party in evening dress, but, since so many people don't have proper morning coats these days, I think that it would be wise to let this slide.

The organizers also want participants to remain polite during their counter-protest. It is a tea party after all:

My ideal would be for the press to come up to interview people about their opinions on tax policies and health care, and have responses such as, "Oh, dear, isn't that a rather personal question?" and, "Really, I prefer not to discuss politics over tea. Would you care for a cup?"

Despite the enthusiasms of some Bostonists, we've never really gotten down with the hipsters who want to LARP the 19th century. The 19th century was terrible! What, with the slaves and the disenfranchised women and the children with mangled hands and all the pooping in the street. But, this Tea Party? It's for a good cause.