Tea Parties (2009)

[Gatorubet]

Too small a sample to tell, and no, I was not at one, but the feel of this to me is as much "I hate Obama and are bad the tax and spend liberals are taxing and spending" as it is "I am worried about the deficit." Guess what? The tax and spend guys won fair and square, and are taxing and spending. Now, you have to eat the [censored] sandwich - philosophically speaking - for the next four years. Get over it! I mean, feel free to protest and all, but the I hate Barry stuff is very much not going to make me think this is about "returning to the Constitution", when the tea parties were nowhere to be seen when Dubya was spending like a drunken sailor and ignoring the separation of powers with a gazillion signing statements.

No, disliking Obama and disliking debt are not mutually exclusive topics for these guys and gals, and yes you can be about both subjects, but it seems to me that a whole lot of this is just Republicans' mega unhappiness and anger that their party (and philosophy) lost the election in 2008. Obama did not pass the damn bills, the Congress did, and it was not without your consent, it was by the democratic process. "Fight tyranny" Please, bitch!!! Vote in 2010 for somebody else, but save the hyperbole.

Anyway, I'd love to hear from those that went.

[BrutusBobcat]

Right, Gator. And the presence of anti-Bush signs at Iraq war protests "proves" that being opposed to the war was just a case of being butthurt about the Gore and Kerry election losses.

What are you expecting? "Gosh, the deficit is too big, but we know Obama's trying!!!!" Normally, when one complains about a government policy, they also complain about the people enacting that policy.

[Gatorubet]

Originally Posted by BrutusBobcat

Right, Gator. And the presence of anti-Bush signs at Iraq war protests "proves" that being opposed to the war was just a case of being butthurt about the Gore and Kerry election losses.

What are you expecting? "Gosh, the deficit is too big, but we know Obama's trying!!!!" Normally, when one complains about a government policy, they also complain about the people enacting that policy.

Well, you bring up a good point Bobcat. But you must admit that the Supreme Court deciding an election is a bit of an odd situation that caused an unusual amount of anger at Bush...his brother being governor of the state that was at play, the whole Katherine Harris deal. Bush had several years of that crazy [censored] for them to stew on even before he got us into Iraq, and it is certainly hard to compare 8 years of George to a couple months of Barry when you are talking personal animus.

But then, maybe it is all part and parcel of the process. I guess I have little use for the silly "Liberty not Tyranny" nonsense when they all got to go to the polls and vote. I mean, saying "Obama is spending like they're just printing it up.....wait! They are!" would be better than "Fight Tyranny" <sigh>

I guess it seems to me to be more than a little confused, focus wise. But again, it is the first go round.

[CookyPuss]

Originally Posted by bigballin2987

I was definitely being sarcastic with my first sentence. Who the hell is going to a tea party because they think Obama was not born in the US?

This guy?

[Flocka]

Originally Posted by MuckFich06

This guy?

If that person went there for that sole reason then they definitely misunderstood the point of this.

[OSUsushichic]

This looked pretty, um, tame in Boston.

[Bucklion]

Originally Posted by OSUsushichic

This looked pretty, um, tame in Boston.

I'm shocked, hotbed of conservatism that it is. Next thing you'll tell me that in Alabama hardly anyone showed up for a Dennis Kusinich rally

[Bucklion]

Originally Posted by jlb1705

To be honest I had to look up Newdow on Wikipedia to remember who the hell he is. While I agree with him on the most basic level on that issue (that's another thread entirely) I disagree with him completely on his extremism and the way he used his daughter.

Well played...that's all I meant.

[Bucklion]

Originally Posted by Gatorubet

Too small a sample to tell, and no, I was not at one, but the feel of this to me is as much "I hate Obama and are bad the tax and spend liberals are taxing and spending" as it is "I am worried about the deficit." Guess what? The tax and spend guys won fair and square, and are taxing and spending. Now, you have to eat the [censored] sandwich - philosophically speaking - for the next four years. Get over it! I mean, feel free to protest and all, but the I hate Barry stuff is very much not going to make me think this is about "returning to the Constitution", when the tea parties were nowhere to be seen when Dubya was spending like a drunken sailor and ignoring the separation of powers with a gazillion signing statements.

No, disliking Obama and disliking debt are not mutually exclusive topics for these guys and gals, and yes you can be about both subjects, but it seems to me that a whole lot of this is just Republicans' mega unhappiness and anger that their party (and philosophy) lost the election in 2008. Obama did not pass the damn bills, the Congress did, and it was not without your consent, it was by the democratic process. "Fight tyranny" Please, bitch!!! Vote in 2010 for somebody else, but save the hyperbole.

Anyway, I'd love to hear from those that went.

You know Gator it's a damned good thing that when it comes to criticism of him, Obama's skin isn't as thin as yours apprently is (about criticism of him). And the bolded is just, well, put this way..."Bush is going to war with Iraq or whoever he wants to bomb the [censored] out of, and if he's wiretapping our conversations it's to save the rights of your pussy bitch ass to protest the very things he is doing to protect you, so go crawl in a hole and [censored] yourself you anti-american [censored]wad!" is probably not they type of dialogue that you responded postively to from 2000-2008. So, absent a few of the curse words, I'm not sure why a person of your obvious intelligence would espouse such a response in kind here.

[WaitingforKickoff]

Why not bring your kids to these protests? They are going to be the one paying for all these government programs anyway.

[DaytonBuck]

Never been to a protest or anything remotely like this before but it was one of the more interesting experiences of my life. I'll try to upload some pics off of my phone later.

[DaytonBuck]

YouTube - Columbus Ohio TEA Party, 2009

These are from Success: The Revolution Begins in the Thousands, one of the guys on the site an OSU student was one of the organizers of the event

[Buckeye86]

Originally Posted by Tresselbeliever

Why not bring your kids to these protests? They are going to be the one paying for all these government programs anyway.

kids these days will probably be paying off the debt racked up during the cold war, they won't get to paying off the checks currently being written for at least another generation

I say bring kids to the demonstrations so that they can learn proper spelling and grammar

[OSUsushichic]

Interesting look at the numbers.

Collectively, these reports account for an attendance of 111,899.... Are these figures impressive? I'd say they're reasonably impressive. Then again, 111,899 isn't much more than the number who attend a typical University of Michigan football game or who attended a single Barack Obama rally in Portland, Oregon last year.

FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: How Many Attended The Tea Parties?

[Wingate1217]

Originally Posted by OSUsushichic

Interesting look at the numbers.



FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: How Many Attended The Tea Parties?

I don't see at least three cities that had the tea parties......

Atlanta reported 15-20K
Birmingham, AL reported 6k
Charlotte, NC 2,000+
and I didn't see the 20 in Boston