After a bite to eat, I headed down to the “Tea Party” going on at the capitol steps. There were a fair number of headed-to-protest folks on the free Mall shuttle headed down the 16th Street Mall (dirty socialist RTD freeloaders …). I got off and followed the pedestrian traffic flow.
- The folks rounding the corner were surprised and pleased by the number of people on the steps of the capitol. As the picture shows, they pretty much filled up the grassy slope west of the building, down to the sidewalk, though that was all. Folks across the street were either counter-protesters, police, or looky-loos like myself.
- The sound system was pretty bad, but it seemed to serve the folks in attendance. As I approached, I could hear folks being exhorted by someone discussing the Evils of the Current Regime, punctuated by the crowd shouting, “No We Can’t.” Cute.
- Most of the people I saw were middle-aged-plus (say mid-30s to late-50s).
- Comment from someone at the crosswalk. “Remember, if you see any ‘acorns,’ step on them.” Cute.
- Many “Don’t Tread on Me” flags, which was thematically appropriate; they rivaled American flags in number. Lots of protest signs of various sorts, with all the standard slogans. Some Ayn Rand references. Calls for the “Fair Tax.” Anger at bailouts, at the financial sector, at the UAW, at Congress, at Obama. Pretty much all about the anger, except for the occasional chant of “USA! USA! USA!”
- Rather tasteless speech using “I Have a Dream” as its theme. I’m not sure Rev. King would approve.
- Saw a lady with “Cut Taxes, Reduce Spending, Protect Traditional Values, Secure the Border” t-shirt. I wondered if a “Feed the Hungry, Give Drink to the Thirsty, Clothe the Naked, Shelter the Homeless” t-shirt would be as welcome.
- “We Demand Liberty!” shouted the guy at the microphone in front of the statehouse to the crowd assembled. Didn’t see anyone’s irony-meter quivering, unfortunately.
- Went back to the office, buying some coffee along the way.
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Thank you Dave, I hope that your Coffee was tasty. 🙂
I was at the TEA party as well. While I support a lot of what they stand for. I disagree with the securing the borders, anti-immigration, anti-abortion stuff. (which isn’t really the main focus, the supporters who show up/speakers don’t represent everyone there)
I’m more of a “Feed the Hungry, Give Drink to the Thirsty, Clothe the Naked, Shelter the Homeless” guy myself these days. I assure you, plenty of us were there today. I just think it should be done by consent and collaboration.
The way I see it, taxes are like theft. It would be like a charity running around with guns saying “give me money to shelter the homeless, or die” Ultimately if we don’t pay the taxes we get arrested, if we resist arrest, we get killed.
How can we solve the suffering in the world without resorting to theft and violence? Now that is real question we need to answer.
We can’t take sides on a round planet. We’re all in this together. We gotta figure this out together and respect each other.
Oh, I have no doubt that there were many people there looking for some affiliated synergy with the gathering.
That’s good to know. It’s too easy to stereotype sometimes.
I agree — but I also think that’s why we have a representative democracy.
Not I think everything can, or should, be done under government auspices or funded by the government. But there are things that can be, that are more easily done in a large-scale fashion, or that, in a crisis, can be more straightforwardly done through the big pockets of the nation as a whole.
Taxes are what we, as a society, choose to make them, through our elected represenatives. “We” are the “we” who are thieving from “us.”
Do you think there are there any societal functions that should be done by the government (funded by taxes)? Or should everything be individually voluntary?
I concur.
And thank you for commenting. I hope to hear from you again.
It seemed like to me a lot of the protestors were using this as an example to speak out against Obama. Which is fine, I just don’t see the point of putting a cloak over it. Maybe I just didn’t see the right portion of the protests, I don’t know.
As far as taxes go, we all enjoy the Internet, telephones, roads, sewer systems, running (safe) drinking and useful water, police, fire, and education. These have to come from somewhere.
The original Boston Tea Party seemed to have a very explicit immediate subject for protest — the Stamp Act — and a general principle for protest — taxation without representation.
There is no particular immediate subject or act involved in the Tea Parties held today, and the general principle is an incredibly diffuse “taxes bad, government spending bad” principle — even though nobody is thus far suffering from higher taxes.
Faced with no real concrete purpose, it seems to me that the message is going to be all over the place, including general inchoate anger / fear / hatred of Obama (for whatever reason), flailing-about gestalt disdain for government in general, a variety of conservative causes about the fringes (anti-abortion, anti-labor, anti-immigrant), and lot of flag-waving and speechifying … all of it well-supported (whether directed or not) by folks who have axes to grind against the Administration and Congress and Democrats.
I got to see the local tea party yesterday from within the Madison Capital. Hooboy. While a minority of folks were honestly there to protest taxes, the strange fringe and/or hate groups were the vast majority of folks there. I also found it very interesting that the largest parts of the crowd were bused in from other parts of the state.
The majority of attendees were lower middle class, and seemed to fail to understand the THEIR taxes are actually on the decline. . . .