Back in 1773, when they had the first Boston tea party, things were a little different. People had that catchy slogan "no taxation without representation" and were fighting against an imposing British government.

This time, not so much.

As April 15 was tax day, people across the country—from Washington, D.C., to Boston—took this opportunity to get their tea bagging on. Whether wearing tea bags as strange hats or harassing CNN reporters (tip: Wonkette), conservatives have been out protesting the Obama administration's tax and spend liberalness. While last time according to Wikipedia "the protest was not a dispute of high taxes," this time it very much is.

Eva Z. Lam '12, president of the Harvard College Democrats, did not understand the point of the protests. "They're just hanging out and being like taxes suck," she said. "I think it's really stupid."

"We live in a democratic country with fair and free elections, they just lost.," Lam said.

The Harvard Republican Club didn't seem very excited about the events either. "No one from Harvard that I know of participated," said HRC President Colin J. Motley '10.

He wrote in an email,

I don't really have too many thoughts about whether they're productive; it's not an issue we've discussed much within HRC. The demonstrations seem to have gotten a lot of attention (good and bad) in the media, so to the extent that you buy into the idea that all publicity is good publicity (which I do not), I guess you could term them moderately successful. They do seem to have tapped into some of the sentiment against wasteful government spending.

I think the bottom line is that they're protests of an issue organized by people who are unhappy with the way President Obama has chosen to make policy. As a demonstration of the organizers' intended purpose, I would rank their effectiveness as much better than the SLAM hunger strikes of a few semesters ago.

On a related note, I can say I paid my taxes this year.

According to the event's Web site there was a tea party at the Boston statehouse from 10am-8pm.