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.