No Ocean Necessary: A Tea Party in the Heartland
Approximately 2,500 citizens marched from Julia Davis to Capitol Park in Boise, Idaho, as part of the national grassroots tea party movement.
Many signs focused on big spending, big taxes, the dangers of socialism, out-of-control government growth, term limits, and concerns with runaway government. Some signs focused on preserving gun rights, border security, honoring the Tenth Amendment, and protecting state sovereignty. An even smaller number of signs spoke out against the Federal Reserve, abortion, and global warming.
It was all good according to Nate Shellman, a 670 KBOI drive-time radio host who emceed the first leg of the tea party at Ann Morrison Park in Boise. He noted, “You all have signs expressing what’s on your mind.” Shellman hailed the cornucopia of messages as a cherished American moment.
Boise’s tea party was actually three rallies held in succession at Ann Morrison Park, Julia Davis Park, and Capitol Park, the latter being located across the street from Idaho’s capitol, which is under renovation. Each location drew an even larger crowd than the last rally.
Chilly weather and even light rain did not deter the marchers. At Julia Davis, Reverend Bryan Fischer of the Idaho Values Alliance joked that it was raining because, “God knows we need water for our tea.”
A spokesman for Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) forwarded along the senator’s best wishes for the event at Julia Davis via an official representative. Congressman Mike Simpson (R-ID), who recently wrote an op-ed in the Idaho Statesman praising the numerous earmarks he brought home to Idaho, sent along a letter expressing his support for the tea party.
At the Capitol Park rally, former elk rancher and 2008 Independent U.S. Senate candidate Rex Rammel threw his hat into the ring to challenge Simpson in the 2010 Republican primary. He opened with a strong plea for state sovereignty. “Today, the battle to challenge the federal government’s usurpation of states’ rights begins.”
Four state legislators also spoke at Capitol Park. Nine-term Idaho Representative Lenore Barrett (R-Challis) was once described as a potential slam poetry champion by Idaho Senator Nicole LeFavour (D-Boise), herself a former slam poetry slam contestant. The crowd at Capitol Park got to judge for themselves, as Barrett laid out a rapid, clear, and concise conservative program in less than five minutes.
What a great tea party it must have been! I am deeply encouraged, it sounds like America’s spirit is rebounding. The “I am not your ATM” sign is worthy of a (youth sized) t-shirt, it’s a good one.
Hooray for Boise and Hooray for America! Watch out Washington, Americans are awake and have a lot to say.
I atttended two TEA parties in Concord and Manchester NH. Both were orderly and passionate. I saw no counter demonstrators except one man in Concord who kept yelling about George Bush. He was ignored by the crowd. A speaker for Americans for Prosperity made the point that we must petition our state governments if we want change and that state reps get little mail from conservatives and lots of mail from liberals, as a general rule. When I got home I went to the state government website and sent three personally tailored emails to my two state reps and local senator about taxes, spending, and the need to cut our budget by 20%. I have never emailed a state rep before, ussually directing my ire at Washington and my reps there. We protesters need to adopt new tactics and relize this is going to be a lengthy effort if we want to get spending under control. I trust other protesters heard a similar message and will alter their behavior by contacting their representatives on a more regular schedual. I have vowed to and followed through.
The event in my town was exciting. Being in the south we lost some of the crowd to Wednesday night church services…those darn extremist, we better keep an eye on them.
After attending a Tea Party I left wondering what happens next. I decided to see what the “third parties” had to offer. Check out the Constitution Party. Their position was an exact match for the views expresses at the Tea Party. Rather than talk about starting a new party check these guys out. I’m signing up and sending a check.
Have fun at the “Forth of July” event. I’m glad to see people being politically active, but not expecting these events to make any significant impact. Idaho is a very reliable state for Republicans that is moving slowly toward supporting Democrats as demographics change.
What strikes me as rather silly is pretending that there is some similarity to the original Tea Party in Boston. There is no taxation without representation to object to here, and the tax rates for most Americans have just been cut. The lack of a focus for these events is very clear – there are many different agendas represented, and the only common theme is that the GOP is out of power.
Unless the GOP can articulate a common theme, a central message, or at least a general idea of where they want to take America, there will be no impact on electoral politics from these Tea Parties.
Peace.
DS
Tea Parties are ridiculous. Nothing more but a gang of crackpots. You have the Ron Paulinistas, the John Birchers, Constitution Party nutters, and probably a few neo-nazis, all out to pluck up a few souls from the mainstream crowd that might show up for the event.
2500? I can organize more to see drunks wrestle a polar bear.
What were you guys having a party on Wednesday for anyway? You’re the ones paying all the taxes to drag us deadbeats along. Get to work!
David S.,
Couldn’t agree more. Look at what’s going on down here in Texas. Rick Perry is trying to use the Tea Party as soon springboard into bigger and better things on the political landscape and acting like he’s a maverick. He’s been the care-taker governor once Bush left and he is the main cog of the machine here in the state. It’s disgraceful they reference a significant moment in American history for this flea market of political opportunists.
For David S., who says there is not taxation without representation to object to, then tell me in what way you are represented by your Congressmen and Senators. I know I’m not represented at all. For Middleman, I’m currently an expatriate Texan, but I don’t share your negative view on Perry. It’s true he’s been a poor governor, but he’s standing tall now. If Texas would withdraw from the so-called union, I’d be back there in a New York minute.
Why is the argument that it’s not taxation without representation? They are taxing the future. Future tax payers, who of course are not represented right now. It is taxing the one group of people who aren’t represented – future people. Of course they are lowering our taxes NOW. ‘Cause all they want us to care about is now. They then expect us to accept the argument that this will save us because what we really need to get our economy healthy is to go deeper into debt. I think that’s about as smart as telling me to get healthy by sitting on my couch eating twinkies. And quit insulting who I am as a person for attending one of these. I am college educated. Political Science major. I’m a rock climber, gymnastics coach, a mother of one – a wife of almost ten years. I’m not a right wing crazy extremist, I just have a few drops of common sense and I am not ok with the government taking on numerous powers that it has no right to – such as nationalizing huge sections of our economy, and planning to raise my future children’s taxes to do it.
Don,
Not much of a patriot are you to support a breakaway state?
Despite some opinions, Texas needs the US and Federal Government a lot more than it needs Texas. I can think of two Texas areas (Killeen and San Antonio) that need the military as it’s their life’s blood. NASA in Houston? Galveston/Bolivar Peninsula is basically becoming the town that FEMA built. Secession would never happen.
You’re a fool to think Perry is standing tall. It’s a game of charades. Jindal has the spotlight and he wants a piece of the action. Perry will always play second banana to Bush and that’s all he’ll ever be.
The liberals see the train coming down the tracks and they are worried. Witness the words “useless” and “ridiculous” and “racist”. All thrown out in a lame attempt to nullify the impact the Tea Parties have had. AWESOME!! The more they whine, the more I know we’re on the right track!
Thank you Obama for awakening the sleeping giant that is the great American patriot! We never would have gotten to this place in our history (what a wonderful lesson for our kids!) without the failing, left-wing policies of Obama. For allowing my kids to see that the Constitution is alive and well and that Americans do NOT have to take the oppression of a party/President/government without a fight… I can never thank the left enough.
We ended up with two Tea Parties in Goshen, Indiana, both organized by the same folks. We met half a dozen times before the events, even staging a brief dry run to get the audio working well and familiarize ourselves with the venue. We were given favorable (sometimes prime time or front page) media coverage before the events by both local and regional media, for which we are grateful. We had been concerned about the other nearby rallies (Elkhart, Granger, Mishawaka, South Bend, Warsaw, etc.) that had simultaneously and spontaneously sprung up, but we found ourselves working together rather than at odds with each other. There were plenty of passionate attendees to go around!
The large rally with 350-400 was on Saturday 4/11 at noon and used the large area in front of the county court house. A forest of creative signs showed up and were clearly not made on printing presses. The rally had an invocational prayer, Pledge of allegiance, a tribute to the flag, a visit from special guest Betsy Ross, a half dozen speakers with prepared messages, and a few more impromptu messages by members of the crowd. One 17 year young patriot, although too young to vote, gave a rousing speech. The weather was sunny with a stiff chilly wind, but the majority of the crowd stayed for the full two hours, finishing with waving signs at passersby. There was no counter demonstration and the atmosphere was up-beat, even though the issue was heartfelt. The fairly strong message discipline in the announcements (only fiscal issues) was followed and no political figures or parties were mentioned in the signs or speakers. The organizing group was nonpartisan and well prepared. We were amazed at the turnout.
The second rally was on the evening of 4/15 – Tax day. It was on the sidewalk in front of the Goshen Post Office, hoping to have late filers join. To our surprise, for the first time Post Office closed, not at midnight as we had initially anticipated, but at 5 PM – our announced start time – and there were only a few last minute filers coming by. The turnout was also significant for this small town – about 60. No messages were planed and the main agenda other than a pledge was a sign waving. After several hours, the organizers decided to wrap it up as the sun was setting and the cold wind was arising again, but the nearly all participants remained demonstrating in full force for another two hours until 9 PM. Again the crowd was up-beat and there was no sign of backlash or counter demonstration. The passing motorists were clearly and overwhelmingly sympathetic with our message.
At both rallies, we spoke briefly to police before hand and at the onset of the rally, and relieved them of any concerns about our crowd, traffic, and message control. They were very polite and helpful. We were careful to spend time toward the end of each rally picking up trash to leave the sites even nicer than when we arrived.
Lessons learned – our extensive preparation was rewarded with excellent turnouts and smooth on-message, peaceful demonstrations.
Sleeping Giant? 2500 in Boise is not a sleeping giant, that’s a county fair. All your venom is directly at the Fed, when the greatest threat to our liberties at the moment are state and local governments with their increasing volume of revenue schemes to protect us from ourselves (red-light cameras, smoking bans, etc..). You go out and have a popular uprising, setting a few city halls on fire and I’d say you might be on to something.
Middleman… So you’re not in favor of State’s rights that are guaranteed by the Constitution then? You are in favor of each state just bowing the will of the federal govt. no matter what the consequences for that state? Of course Texas will not attempt to break away from the Union. You missed the point. Texas was pointing out that there are lines the federal government must not cross when it comes to the rights of a state and that those lines ARE being crossed. I think as Americans it’s unsettling now for us to see that we might have to use the Constitution against an oppressive President/Federal Government. If we don’t stand up for the Constitution now, what good is it?
Bayer equated the Homeland Security Department’s report with threats he received on his life while working abroad for U.S. corporations. In his speech, Bayer gave the same answer to Homeland Security that he gave to the terrorists threatening his life: “Come and get me.”
I would like to help the country find a moniker for Janet Napolitano & suggest (from the headline on Drudge right now) Big Sis.
Sis sez…
“We don’t have the luxury of focusing our efforts on one group; we must protect the country from terrorism whether foreign or homegrown, and regardless of the ideology that motivates its violence.”
I thought she had replaced the(accurately descriptive) phrase “terrorism” with the vapid euphemism “man-caused disaster”.
Maybe even she would feel dumb using that language.
For other people who said “tea Parties are ridiculous”, I like to think them Obama is a ext. ridiculous. He has been aligned with his against American church for”so long!!!
For those who said “tea Parties are ridiculous”. Do they think Obama is a ridiculous? Obama has with his HATE AMERICA CHURCH for so long!!!
AThinkingperson,
I’m not against state right’s at all. I just find it very peculiar that the likes of Rick Perry, who were dutiful servants under some of the biggest federal government spending by Bush, suddenly have a problem with it. I smell a rat and so should you.
Middleman….So should I? I applaud SOMEONE in an elected office remembering that the Constitution is alive and well. If it took the current oppressive government to light a fire under Perry, so be it. If only more would follow suit.
My question to you is did you smell a rat when Obama said he was against earmarks and then signed off on them? Did you smell a rat when Obama said he was proud to be an American and then went overseas and threw us under the bus? I’m wondering where your outrage is??
As for “representation”, I haven’t been represented for forever.
The Beltway is its own culture and (when legislators have been there as long as Barney Frank or Ted Kennedy) operates within its own hothouse atmosphere of deals & counter deals. Occasionally, our elected representatives peek out at the rest of the country (we are referred to as “average”* Americans or “little” Americans) and utter some mind numbing blather in order to get themselves re-upped for another 2, 4, 6 , whatever, years.
(*Barack Obama recently used the “average” descriptor and I am far less average than he.)
The…phenomenon…of government becoming about itself and we, the (little) people existing to serve its agenda through taxation (taxes=the money government uses to supplement printing the stuff) is the overarching reason for Tea Party enthusiasm sweeping (yes sweeping) the country.
Rick Perry seems to be highly uncomfortable with the demand and pressure that the federal government is putting onto states that don’t want to accept the full contingent of TARP money and/or don’t want to accept TARP money at all.
He’s appalled, as he should be, at the implicit threats against states that go against what the fed is imposing relative to accepting this money, notably threats and intimidation to punish those states through withdrawl of (other) federal funding.
There are other governors who feel the same way, e.g., Mark Sanford of South Carolina.
States do, you know, reserve all rights not specifically granted to the federal government in The Constitution. (you know, that document that is becoming less and less meaningful every day)
Obama has been in office for 3 months. He’s been keeping the ship basically on the same course Bush has because he honestly hasn’t been able to turn it that quick, as no executive could. Perry cares about Perry. If the devil came to him and say burn the Constitution or mess up your perfectly groomed hair and I’ll give you a great political career, he’d burn the Constitution.
The rat I smell is outright partisanship.
I don’t believe we can count on Europe, and I don’t think Obama is the messiah, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Where exact did he throw us under the bus? By being nice? Big deal. If Europe doesn’t bite at least now we know we put everything out on the table. Since when has the Our Way or The Highway option that Bush gave ever been a good sales pitch?
David S,
TEA stands for “taxed enough already”. The events were not about taxation without representation as the December 19, 1773 Boston tea party focused on. Though there were many Republicans at the two parties I attended, there were also Democrats and a lot of Independents. There was universal concern about unsustainable spending and it’s after effects. I am not expecting the Republicans to be effective regarding limiting spending, they are signifigantly responsible for getting us into this mess and continuously present candidates nationally who are economically illiterate. There needs to be a new political force and, perhaps yesterday we began to see a nascent realization that we collectively need to go in another direction. I resigned from the GOP two years ago and will no longer give the party a dime, too many RINOs and Arlen Specter types. I am not alone. The Libertarians are not the answer, maybe the Constitutionalists offer something, we’ll see.
I love seeing the left wing losers trying to talk down this movement, while they rely on those Acorn mercenaries to lead the charge for BO. What happened to their rally, did someone forget to pass out the checks? How many supporters of old BO are going to contribute to him after seeing everything he campaigned on blow up in our faces. Every one of the people at the Tea Party will be voting but not for BO. Better talk to Soros to see how much he is going to ante up for the next election.
@8. Don Rhudy:
You ask:
My answer is that I am well represented by my congresspersons in Washington. The delegation from Oregon is predominantly aligned with my values and does a good job advocating for the state. I have regular correspondence with my representatives and feel that they are aware of the issues that concern me, and working hard to address them as best they can.
These gentlemen walked the streets of my neighborhood as part of their vote canvassing, getting to know the people of Oregon in person. They generally do a very good job of representing the interests of the people of the state, and represent me as well as I could expect them to. No, they do not see eye to eye with me on all issues – but our disagreements are few, generally minor, and usually a matter of degree rather than kind.
If you feel you are not represented by your congresspersons, you should take action to replace them with persons more to your liking. That’s what we do in a Constitutional Republic.
Peace.
DS
PAR,
You made it pretty clear already that you’re a member of the Constitution Party on here trying to drum up support (send those checks!!). Considering the amount of Ayn Rand followers on here, I would imagine the Constitution Party with their far religious right doctrine might be a tough pill to swallow if they are true to Rand’s beliefs. Wasn’t the Constitution Party candidate last year not only a religious fanatic, but also a 9/11 troopher?
Even though I’m don’t care for Acorn, or Soros, I think I’ll form a political party named Communist Force Go Team Alpha, and I’m sure I could drum up more votes than the Constitution Party.
Middleman,
If you can’t see the threat that unsustainable spending poses, I truly feel sorry for you. Our government is consuming more and more of our GDP, printing unsupported money and leveraging spending at a rate never seen before in the history of our country. When recovery occurs massive inflation is likely to appear unless Bernanke quickly hikes the prime. When he does that the recovery will stall and the economic fallout will be even more painful than it is today. People on fixed incomes and retiring baby boomers will be particularly hard hit. It really is unfortunate that our citizens have such a limited understanding of economics and the looming disaster that awaits them. They are in for a very rude shock in the near future.
Remember that conservative satire movie from last year? Oh, what was it . . . directed by some Hollywood conservative . . . Bill O’Reilly was in it . . . kind of a send-up of Michael Moore . . . what was the name of that thing again? . . . Anyway, it was widely promoted by Fox as “the coming blockbuster! . . . The movie that will change Hollywood . . . Ushers in a new voice for conservative America!”
Just like the Tea Parties . . . what WAS the name of that movie? That besides the point. The left scared? Not even close, but I understand your need to say that . . . to whistle past the graveyard of irrelevance that is the fate of modern protests. You don’t want to feel (or admit) that you’re wasting your time. That’s fine. You’ve proven to everyone that self-delusion is a part of your core – sneaky leftists will infiltrate our tea parties . . . Obama will fail to act on the pirates . . . the government is on its way to my house to take away my gub. The list of ginned up BS is as long as Hannity’s nose, which grows longer everyday.
So, I leave you with the question all protesters must face when the day after proves to be the same as the day before . . . Now what?
The local media had a poll on their website asking what the general public thought about the tea parties. Four of five respondents said that it was a GOOD IDEA. Eleven percent are like the delusional lefty on this board – and said it was a ‘Republican farce’, and nine percent said ‘who cares’. The poll results weren’t announced on the live broadcast as promised at the five o’clock report which announced the poll initially. Wonder why? (not really wondering).
A clear MAJORITY of people agree with the tea party protests. Another poll indicated that 96% of the people do not think Congress spends money wisely. That’s the problem for the democrat majority that will not go away in 2010. (I’m wondering who the other 4% are?)
For those who think the tea parties will have no impact: WRONG. If anyone in Congress is paying attention, they will realize that the crowds were attenuated by jobs and personal circumstances; many people did not protest but were there in spirit. The actual numbers at the protests represent the tip of the iceberg. They should all be worried. “VOTE THEM OUT” was a popular chant yesterday. All politics is local, and locally yesterday (as the village idiot on the comment board here is looking at numbers and can’t bring himself to see the protests were in small towns and big ones, thousands of people at each venue is a multiplicative – do the math. The numbers far exceeded expectations.) These rallies are a shot across the bow to Congress – support Obama’s policies and fall on your political sword.
The tea parties will significantly erode Obama’s support both publicly and in the Congress, and the media myth that Obama is popular now looks as ridiculous as Baghdad Bob.
And that’s why the left is nervous this morning.
David S must feel “represented” because he lives in one of those few blue counties in Oregon where the bulk of the population is concentrated. Geographically, the state (even “liberal” Oregon) is mostly red.
With vast Soros sums at his disposal ($750 million campaign war chest) and Barack’s (and ACORN etc.) emphasis on getting out the goldfish vote in American centers of concentrated population, the facts are that the vast red geographical area of America is ignored.
SENATOR Al Franken
I already linked this once, but you can see for yourselves exactly where Barack Obama’s support comes from.
And where it doesn’t.
2008 election county by county
Samizdat,
I’m not in disagreement with regards to unsustainable spending, however I’m in the camp that something needed to be done. I personally don’t believe the markets would heal themselves from what I perceive as unnatural contagens.
Retiring baby boomer might be hit hard? Guess what? They’ve already been hit, hit hard, and hit before Obama came in. My parents who put all seven of their kids through college are already retired living their golden years and saw their 401Ks cut in half. They now wonder if they have to get jobs again. This was in November before Obama even stepped foot in the White House.
The massive spending is nothing more but the initial shock of the greed, deception and corruption that rotted the unregulated from within.
It seems like EVERYONE, including the financial gurus don’t know how economics works anymore. It’s become so complex with everyone so busy trying to keep up appearances, no one know to fix it. It’s pretty clear when apparently almost no one saw any of this coming.
@30. tanstaafl:
Oregon has a very low population density outside of metro areas, as do most western states. Yes, geographically you could argue that the state is mostly red. You could also argue that it is mostly vacant. The vast red areas of eastern Oregon send a GOP Representative to Congress, so it’s not like they are without representation. Oregon did shed an incumbent GOP Senator this year, mostly because he failed to represent the interests of the people of the state – I’d say our electoral system seems to be working fairly well.
That’s because “the vast red geographical area” doesn’t vote. People vote, and “the vast red geographical area” contains very few of them. The Constitution is structured so that even lightly populated states maintain a robust presence in the Senate, which at present has kept the Democrats from being completely unrestrained. It’s going to take more than a Tea Party to convince voters that the GOP deserves a shot.
Peace.
DS
PS – I don’t agree that “the vast red geographical area of America is ignored” – in fact there is more aggressive federal funding in these areas than in the blue areas, leading to a situation where the “small government” states receive more revenue than they contribute to the federal government. It is a perverse arrangement that is bound to unravel.
The media has shown its typical left-wing bias in reporting the protest. I would love to see a comparison of how CNN/MSNBC treated the anti-war or illegal immigrant protestors last year and the treatment of tea party protestors yesterday.
We are living in a Bizarro World when ordinary citizens/veterans are labeled radicals by the DHS and illegals are called great americans by the Speaker of the House.
Economics is not hard to understand. There’s a productive side to the economy (Free Enterpise) and a non-productive side (Government). Government has to either tax, borrow, or print money in order to spend. In the case of the first two, it reduces the amount of capital available to the job producers. Printing more money reduces the value of the money you already have, which is called inflation. Governments at all levels have an INSATIABLE appetite for funds. When a downturn occurs, the private sector ( productive side) cuts cost, and the government (non-productive side) raises taxes, to the detriment of the productive sector. Thus the Tea Parties.
AThinkingPerson:“Thank you Obama for awakening the sleeping giant that is the great American patriot!”
Yes, President Obama, thank you for awakening the sleeping 75-95 year-old retirees who made up the vast majority of these tiny scatterd protests. If you had let them continue to sleep, they might have missed the early bird special at Hometown Buffet. And they surely would have missed Matlock.
The Constitution is structured so that even lightly populated states maintain a robust presence in the Senate, which at present has kept the Democrats from being completely unrestrained.
Two Senators from every state, large, small, miniscule or somewhere in between. Anyway, we’re not talking about lightly populated states, we’re talking about vast geographical areas of states that don’t have populations targeted by (and catered to) by the Democrat machine.
Anyway, DS, maybe you can get your head out of the ideological toilet (briefly) and take a break from your full time employment (spewing Leftoid jargon on PJM) and catch this inspiring event.
It’ll do ya good
Japan and the EU could do with some Tea Parties. At least it would make their citizens’ existence slightly less dull than flatline.
To those on the right that are getting excited about a third party, I would just like to say two words, “Ross Perot”. A third party would be an unmitigated disaster and usher in another era of left wing nuttiness that we would never recover from. My hope from these parties is that there is enough of a groundswell that the Republicans come around in their way of thinking. A third party candidate, in addition to being unelectable, would enjoy no support from either party in congress and be a complete lame duck. Save your money and keep sending letters to the Republican’s that you’ll start donating again when they start representing you again.
To all of you blue-state knuckleheads in the above comments who write conservatives off as old folks in states that won’t be red much longer.
I have reall doubts about the conventional wisdom of all the “red” states turning blue sometime soon. While the blue-state sit on the coasts smug in their superiority, Conservatives are having babies, and they are not.
And those babies are likely to grow up to be… conservative.
In other words, don’t be so sure that the shift towards “liberalism” is inevitable.
And for that matter, there are the people like me who were ambivilent about Obama right up until that stimulus monstrosity came out.
Pastor at #37,
At least at the two parties I attended in NH you are substantially wrong about the demographics. I was surprised at how many women between the ages of 30 and 50 attended (some very snappy numbers,I might add) and lots of husband and wife combos, some with kids and some without. The overwhelming majority of the crowd was under 55 although there were certainly seniors as well. I was surprised to see numerous college aged kids, I hadn’t expect to see any.
Pastor of Muppets is a whiner. No way of getting around that. When faced with masses of people protesting against a tyrannical government he resorts to name calling. When talking about the number of people attending, he implies wrongly that they were all senior citizens. When trying to prop up Carter II’s track record so far, this is his lame reply…
“He’s been keeping the ship basically on the same course Bush has because he honestly hasn’t been able to turn it that quick, as no executive could.”
Seems to me as if he’s patting Obama on the back for following Bush’s course. The libs are truly getting desperate now. Hehehehe….
Rocketeer,
I understand the danger of third parties and the likelyhood that Perot scenario could cause permanent Democrat hegemony. However, it is possible that the Republicans are going the way of the Whigs in the 1840′s. There are so many RINOs who have contempt for conservatives like me. The party left me, I didn’t leave the party. When I came to realize this in 2006, I resigned from the RNC in January 2007. Either the Republicans need to mend the error of their ways and attract me back or I need to find a new political home. There are Republicans that I like and identify with, but there are many who I can’t stand; Arlen Specter, Susan Collins and Olympia Snow are three that come to mind. They just did so many stupid things when they were in the majority that they squandered their good will with me. They took my money and never really bothered to listen to what I had to offer. They took me for granted. I keep hoping they will come back to their senses, but it’s been a number of years now and they just keep up the stupidity, John McCain being the latest example.
Those thousands drawn to candidate Obama’s rallies last year were inspired activists. In contrast, those thousands drawn to the “tea parties” Wednesday were kooks. Of course.
To #45:
Those “inspired activists” were largely “mesmerized puppets.” Obama used a lot of recognizable NLP and hypnotic techniques to fire them up and/or tear up their eyes with emotion, not REASON. They let themselves be duped, just as many are duped by hell-fire and brimstone preachers of yore.
In a way the “teabagging” rallies are good. There are a bunch of kooks who attend these functions as other posters have noted. However, the Tea Parties are an opportunity to monitor and identify these people when they assemble. Many of them have extremist leanings and do not support Democracy. Have you heard of “Christian Reconstructionism?” Many rally attendees subscribe to the philosophy that the government in its current form should be overthrown and replaced with Christian theocracy. They are willing to resort to violence to realize that goal. They are, in fact, no better than the terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center because they hope for America’s fall, just in a different way. They are the enemy within.
DavidS, from Oregon, eh? That answers A LOT of questions.
Here’s your ‘..well represented Congresspersons’ in D.C. -
Unemployment Rates for States for March
http://www.bls.gov/web/laumstrk.htm
34 ALABAMA 9.0
35 ILLINOIS 9.1
36 GEORGIA 9.2
36 WASHINGTON 9.2
38 MISSISSIPPI 9.4
39 TENNESSEE 9.6
40 FLORIDA 9.7
40 OHIO 9.7
42 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 9.8
42 KENTUCKY 9.8
44 INDIANA 10.0
45 NEVADA 10.4
46 RHODE ISLAND 10.5
47 NORTH CAROLINA 10.8
48 CALIFORNIA 11.2
49 SOUTH CAROLINA 11.4
50 OREGON 12.1
51 MICHIGAN 12.6
Over-the-Month Change in Unemployment Rates for States (Feb. to Mar.)
http://www.bls.gov/web/laumstcm.htm
Yeah – ‘great job’ by ‘representation’ (lower cased ‘R’ purposely). Edging out barren wasteland Michigan for the toilet. Oregon would have higher unemployment numbers if Oregon didn’t have the fraud of ‘full-serve’ gas stations. Resulting in higher per gallon costs of fuel for someone to flip a lid, twist a cap and fuel my car..
Your ‘reps’ are pro illegal immigration as well.. with these staggering unemployment numbers. Unless you’re illegal, you’re naive to the extreme.
Our Congressmen and Congresswomen are traitors…
28. one of my own:
“the government is on its way to my house to take away my gub.”
What’s a “gub”?
37. Pastor of Muppets:
Get back to work and make more money so you can pay more taxes. That’s your patriotic duty to your dear leaders Obama, Pelosi and Reid. You are shirking your duty by wasting time on these boards. Get back to work. I need some of your money to finance my retirement. Obama said I was entitled to it.
47. Praetorian:
If you want to know who doesn’t support democracy you better look in the mirror. Your comments about “monitoring and identifying these people when they assemble” could have been uttered by Josef Goebbels. Do you wear a brown shirt everyday by the way?
The argument of taxation without representation is valid because the most onerous laws are now promulgated by activist judges. Judges with a liberal agenda. Laws that haven’t been passed by any legislature, and indeed contravene’s the will of the people as determined by state initiatives. Gay marriage is the classic example here. D.C. better wise up fast, they are facing a rebellion and are to effing stupid and arrogant to realize it. This is similar to Czar Nicholas II in 1917.
I hosted a tea party on the same ground as my ancestors fought in the revolution. Most of us dressed in our 18th century attire.
Our group had signs that said, Your Pork is breaking my piggy bank, Taxed to Death, Don’t Tread on Me.
We had democrats and republicans, just because in New York we are taxed at everything-our governor is a tax crazy. He wanted to tax skiing and bowling, but that didn’t happen. A pack of cigaretts are now $10.00 and wine and beer just went up 10%. No one is happy.
But just as a warning, check the graph on our national debt and see which presidents have caused the most in what we pay back you will be surprised.
And our constitution does imply that the president CAN go debt crazy, especially in times of war.
We do not need the Taliban in the United States-and that can come in the form of evangelicals, or any other fundementalist.
What an excellent blog, I’ve added your feed to my RSS reader.