Whether you’re a tea party lover, hater, or curious party, I think you might find the thoughts below somewhat interesting.
I’m going to the Tea Party today in Atlanta. I went last year, and wrote all about it (and re-posted in my last blog post). You can witness my excitement and reasoning there. This year I go in with the same reasoning and excitement, but with some added curiosity, encouragement, and some trepidation.
Reasoning, a year later…
Since last year, our government has done more to take away our freedoms, spend our money, and mortgage our children’s futures. We’ve seen “stimulus”, “jobs bills”, “health care reform”, and so many executive orders and decisions it makes our head spin. In a time when the economy is still trashed, we passed a massive bill which will tax us almost immediately, give us almost no benefits for 4 years, and start to dismantle 1/6th of our economy. Instead of working to improve the system by strengthening private industry (which produces jobs), while eliminating waste and corruption, we just piled on a new system which does almost nothing to help the overall problem. All this was done while the general public wanted some reform, but did not want it in the form it was given to us. It was done using backdoor politics, obscure rules, and closed door meetings. The level of distrust our elected officials showed us is only matched by the distrust we now have for them.
I speculated last year that the tea party movement was not a flash in the pan moment, that it would persist, and I was certainly right. The latest report says that 25% of voters identify themselves as “Tea Party Supporters”. That’s a huge movement. I’ve watched a lot of progressive Democrats and Republicans decide that their career is over, while watching a lot of moderate Democrats and Republicans get the message and start returning to their roots. I’ve seen many Republicans be challenged by more fiscally and governmental conservative folks who come from nowhere to take victory. And I’ve seen a lot of regular people put themselves out there to challenge the corrupt career politicians. I think anyone who doubts that the tea party had a hand in these changes is out of their mind.
I’m going to the Tea Party this year not as a protester, but as someone who wishes to demonstrate his right to free speech and assembly, and as someone who wants to let our politicians (all of them) know that we hold you accountable. The American people will remove the corrupt from power when tyranny affects them. We still have a form of government that allows and encourages this. We wanted some of the “change” Barack Obama promised (not all, but some)… and we’ve got none of that brand. We want an end to dirty politics, an end to endless spending, and an end to the erosion of our liberties under the guise of compassion and the shadow of fears.
Trepidation
There’s been a lot of talk lately about infiltrators who will show up with misspelled and racist signs in order to make us look bad. Since the news has been out there, I think it’s likely that we might not see as much of that as originally thought. I go in this time knowing that there will probably be some of those people, and there will be some legitimate crazies (birthers etc). I’m going to watch carefully and probably note them, take pictures, and document it all. If the tea party has been taken over by the crazies or if it’s obvious that it’s being infiltrated, I’ll document and report it.
I was also asked recently if I was afraid to go because we’ve automatically been branded as racists? I’m not worried, because I know the truth. I am not a racist, but the notion that people are dismissing us as such is very upsetting to me. Are there racists that go to Tea Parties? Sadly, I’m sure there are… but I know that we’re talking about a very tiny number, and that crazies unfortunately exist in any large gathering.
Preparation
I decided to take the entire day off, as there were other things I wanted to get done today as well. I started this morning by spending time with my baby boy, then heading outside to mow the lawn. (Surely the sign of an evil bigoted protester). I plan on taking Georgia’s public transportation system (MARTA) in to the gathering. It’s been pointed out to me that it’s “ironic” that I use a public system that apparently I’m protesting. For the record, it’s not ironic, and as I said before I’m not protesting.. I’m “demonstrating”. I fully support public transportation systems that serve a purpose. I regret that most of them are not as self sufficient as they should be, and would lobby to reform them so that they are, but I would point out that MARTA is both privately and publicly funded, and all in all a pretty decent system.
I plan on getting there early, and really check things out. I’m going in with an open mind regarding everything. If I see things I hate, I will probably “tweet” them. I will try to live-tweet most of the events today (GemZombie on twitter if you care).
I plan on meeting up with the same group of people I went with last year. They are a good group of people, and we enjoyed each others company last year. I will likely arrive before most of them.
I’ll be summing up the event in another post either later today or tomorrow. I’m looking forward to contrasting it with last years event, and will be looking closely for any ugliness on either side of the coin.
(Update: corrected numerous misspellings)
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