Crowd members stand on landscape rocks holding flags and signs during the anti-tax TEA Party rally in front of the Gilbert Municipal Complex on April 15, 2009 (Ralph Freso/Tribune).
I was impressed by the enthusiastic turnout and general attitude of Wednesday’s TEA parties across the U.S., which included a noontime crowd of more than 1,000 people in Gilbert and up to 5,000 people at the state Capitol later that afternoon. Sure, what started as a truly grassroots protest against excessive federal spending under President Barack Obama was co-opted by various radio talk show stations and political action groups. But that’s the beauty of freedom of speech and of peaceful assembly. Those rights work together to establish the power of like-minded people coming together to seek change in-person and through mass media as well as the latest social networks.
At least some of the energy at the protests were fueled by the disclosure earlier this week that U.S. Homeland Security had distributed a memo that “right-wing extremism” is likely to rise because of the bad economy and our first black president. A lot of people are angry that this terrorism risk assessment seems to be a sweeping indictment of conservative values such as limited government and pro-life.
The real question is, will Wednesday’s mass protests make a difference? It’s clear to me that Obama is somewhat worried. If you listen closely to his Tuesday speech on the economy at Georgetown University, he devotes a lot of time directly answering all of the criticism. If you didn’t watch it live, here’s another opportunity to see how the president tries to defend that massive buildup of federal debt.
http://www.vimeo.com/4156541
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>It’s clear to me that Obama is somewhat worried.
You betcha he’s worried!
He wants to RAISE taxes to about 10% less than what the highest tax rate was under Reagan.
You heard that right–Obama wants to RAISE taxes so that they are LESS than what they were under Reagan!
Remember Reagan?
The Golden Boy Hero of Conservatives?
Hello? Hello?
Anyone out there besides the crickets?
//Crickets…
” Libertarian values” would be what?
Repeat talking points of the GOP regardless of how ridiculous they are, right?
Where were these clowns the previous eight years? Where they blinded by the light of what was President Shrub? Talk about hypocrites.
Reader: to answer your question “” Libertarian values” would be what?
Repeat talking points of the GOP regardless of how ridiculous they are, right?
Wrong.
You should look up the Libertarian party and their ideology. It’s not difficult. It’s clear you have them confused with Republicans. They are two different parties.
For one thing, they are strongly in favor of bringing home our troops from around the world (130+ countries where we have a presence). If we had gone with a libertarian for President instead of Obama, we would be seeing a large CUT in defense spending instead of the INCREASE we now have under the current administration. We would have a massive immediate decrease in personnel for Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, Germany and other countries.
Libertarians would fervently OPPOSE the bailout that BUSH, OBAMA and McCAIN endorsed, that has cost the taxpayers Trillions of dollars, most of which they’ll never see again as we sink deeper into debt.
Libertarians endorse getting rid of the Federal Reserve which has destroyed the purchasing power of our dollars and which the Repusb and their Dem buddies would never think of touching.
That would be change you could believe in.
And to Answer Rev Robert, libertarians have been consistently opposed to the deceits, wars, debt creation and gross spending schemes of the Republicans as well as the Democrats.
But as things get worse, its just that now more Americans in general are finally waking up to the mess that BOTH the Repubs and the Dems have created and are making worse through politics as usual. Expect more protests and possibly some acts of defiance.