Tea Party

My extended family here in ATL went to the "Tea Party" last night. Accounts vary, but I would certainly believe 15,000 people were there.

Of course, the media mostly got it wrong. We weren't there protesting taxes or even Obama, per se, but run-away government as a whole. CNN reporters I saw on TV later tried to portray protesters as stupid "Don't you realize Pres. Obama has cut taxes for 95% of Americans and that you might be eligible for a $400 credit?". CNN's website to day barely mentions the event, but does have an iReport from someone who claims that he and his wife are both unemployed, but are happy to be paying their taxes and what are these people crying about.

Given how Obama carried something like 95% of black voters, admittedly, I had expected the crowd to be mostly angry white men like myself and also mostly Republicans. I was a bit surprised on the way dowtown on MARTA to be standing next to an older black gentleman who was asking me directions to get to the rally and we chatted a bit about how many people were goign to be there, that sort of thing. As we approached our stop, he said "Let's hope this is enough to get someting really started". Arriving on the scene, I was further surprised by the mixture of people there--especially the number of 20-somethings and the number of black and Hispanic folks. And there were plenty of signs along the lines of "I'm a Democrat and I didn't vote for this!"

Perhaps the most interesting twist was the number of people who left shortly after 9:00, which is when Sean Hannity came on stage. We did. Getting back on MARTA we were commenting on it, wondering if it was mostly people with kids (it was a schoolnight), and a 20-something turned around and said "It's the Hannity factor." Yep, I can agree with that.

The AJC had this to say:

The Atlanta rally was one of 20 around the state and more than 300 across the country. Billed as grassroots protests, the gatherings were attacked by critics as frauds created by Republican advocacy groups with the backing of deep-pocketed lobbyists and Fox News Channel, which reported prominently on the movement.

To which I can only respond with a statement and a question. My family are not Republicans, were not paid to be there, and rarely watch Fox News (esp. Hannity, O'Reilly, or that godawful morning show--I do like that Megan Kelly though!). For the question: when Obama campaign rallies around the country were funded by Mr. Soros and the DNC, and the supporters were flogged into a frenzy by the DailyKos and MoveOn.org, those were proclaimed to be grassroots events representing an uprising force for "change"? Oh, one more thing too, for the record, every speaker I heard was quick to criticize spending by both parties, and usually pointed out that this is nothing new but is something that has reached a limit with the "stimulus" bill and the pork-laden budget with $1T+ deficit passed are just the back-breaking straws for us camels.