Reply #33: I've actually thought about this way more than is probably necessary [View All]

[RZM]

And I should add that I do not personally know any member of the Tea Party nor have I studied the group's history so I'm not a wealth on information on them either. But here's my take:

One reason for the popularity of 'teabagger' is that there doesn't seem to be any other one-word terms to describe them individually -- other common political groups do have one-word terms to describe members/adherents (Democrat, Republican, Socialist . . . whatever) and 'member of the Tea Party' doesn't exactly roll off the tongue and sounds kind of boring to boot, so part of the reason is just basic efficiency/snappiness.

Second, as an earlier poster pointed out, the use of 'teabag' as a verb originated within the movement. This certainly accounts for the origins of the term and partly for its staying power, since those who do use it can always point out that it came out of the movement itself.

Third, I think by far the most important reason for the popularity of 'teabagger' is the other, sexual connotation of the word, which lends it great pejorative power. If you're hostile to the group, being able to refer to them and poke fun at them all at once is the ideal situation.

Personally, I don't care for the term. I find it rather puerile and I try not to refer to entire groups by terms that their members ask not to be called. But I'm not telling anyone else not to use it -- that's not my call. All I can do is refrain from using it myself and explain why that is.