Tea bagger tour comes to Olympia

06-28-09

Tea bagger tour comes to Olympia

There’s been much said about the TEA party “movement” since its inception a few months ago. Many liberal bloggers, like myself, assumed it was a one-time thing (due to the incredible derision they received for the sexual connotations of their name), but no, their corporate sponsors have decided to keep this train rolling, seeing now a mechanism to keep what’s left of the GOP base energized for what they imagine could be an electoral backlash against Democrats in 2010 or 2012.

The state version of this astroturf “movement” decided to hold what will be two rallies this weekend and next to get activists excited about the cause again and prepare for the protest on the 4th of July weekend. Never having seen one up close and personal, I decided to check on out and see if the press accounts have been accurate.

I do have to admit that I was surprised at the turnout. I was expecting a rather small number of people, but there was about 100-150 (great for a open-air concert or a picnic, but lousy for a rally/protest). There was, though, no rally to speak of, or at least not the kind of rally I’m used to. As you can see by the photos attached as well as the gallery they link to, the whole thing was basically a BBQ peppered with some country music guy named Garret King singing patriotic-themed songs in between various speakers saying that 1) this wasn’t a left/right issue, it was a right/wrong issue and that 2) this isn’t an issue with Barack Obama. I would have been more convinced had not several of the signs refer to or imply strongly that they were in fact about Obama (there was even a birther there, bless his little deluded heart). As to the right/left issue, I kept hearing there was a strong support from both parties and these rallies/protests weren’t just a GOP function. Strange though that of the people I asked, not one identified themselves as a Democrat. Everyone was either member of the Republican Party, Libertarian Party or they just hated government in general (there was one gentleman who self-identifies as a Whig-er, which I didn’t even realize was still in existence).

Overall, I would have to say that the media accounts have made the TEA party protests more than they actually are. They amount to a bunch of people pissed off that their guy didn’t win (whether it be McCain, Paul or someone other 3rd party candidate) and they’re looking for a legitmate way to pout for the next 8 years. I can’t imagine why anyone would take them, seriously, least of all the media.

Three Reasons Why White Working-Class Voters Can’t Save the Republicans (usnews.com)
Tea Bag Parties are fake grassroots “uprisings” sponsored by cynical Rich Republicans (iflizwerequeen.com)
Alright Already With The Birthers: Here’s The Proof (alan.com)

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tallgagirl

Wow your insight is amazing! Go back to la-la land and keep believing that this movement doesn't mean anything. Obviously, attending ONE tea party has made you an expert, so much so, that you have the movement figured out. I suspect, that you were one of the loners that sat in the corner and spoke to very few people at the event. I tell you what.. Come down to the one in Dallas, TX on the 4th and you can see what the Tea Parties are really about!

tallgagirl

You really don't get it do you? There are many of us who got rapped up in Obama and are now beginning to surface with what radical direction he is taking this country. He made me think he was a moderate. Boy, was I mistaken! You will like many others finally wake up to see most if not all of your civil liberties taken from you and then and only then you will wish you had listened to what people were fighting for. Have you read the cap and trade bill? Or H.J. 5 resolution to end presidential term limits? Wake up and smell the coffee the change that was proposed was not the change most of us bargained for and more and more people are coming to the realization. If you would take the time to research and learn before writing meaningless comments about the ONE tea party you actually attended; YOU could even learn something.

mardod

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

My thoughts on the topic were based on both media accounts and my personal observations. I agree to form an opinion based on a single interaction without any measure of a global viewpoint would have been rash. But what I saw merely confirmed the suspicions I had (and the many hours of television coverage they've received) that these rallies are a sham being perpetrated on people in order to stoke their fears of big government coming to take away their civil rights. Taxes are the price we pay for having a civil society. There's certainly room to argue how they're being spent and what's a reasonable tax to expect people to pay, but this org opposes just about anything that the administration has offered as a fix on the problems the Bush administration created.

As for Waxman-Markey, the point isn't whether I'd read it (at 932 pages, I would have been refreshingly surprised if anyone at the event had read it), I wasn't on stage telling people that those who did vote for it were anti-American and deserved to be thrown out of office. There are some serious problems with H.R. 2454 and many in the progressive community have reservations about it, but based on the non-partisan analysis I have read, it's not a bad start to begin to address the radical climate change issue we're facing.

H.J. 5 though is a political non-starter. It'll never happen. Repealing the 22nd Amendment is something my side got up in arms about in 2005 when it was presented by a conservative Democrat and a Republican (Steny Hoyer and Jim Sensenbrenner) and known as H.J. Res. 214. It's been presented in every congressional session (sometimes by Democrats, sometimes Republicans, sometimes both) since 1997 and is never read in committee let alone get out of it. And even if it did, it would never pass the full House, much less 3/4 of state legislatures. It's there basically to scare the crap out of the other side depending on who occupies the Oval Office.

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