NEOAVATARA

Anti-tax groups from a variety of backgrounds (Conservatives, moderates, Republicans, Democrats, and many Libertarians) have formed a unique and somewhat suprising strong alliance this year with the formation of a national ‘tea party’ protest.

The tea parties, harkoning back to the Boston Tea Party of revolutionary days, was inspired by Rick Santelli of CNBC.  Remember him of the Obama/Geithner rant, that got him in trouble with the White House and liberals alike?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEZB4taSEoA

Oh yeah, good times.  Seems like long ago…

In any case, this has turned into a somewhat ridiculous but effective grass roots movement.  I know, the act of throwing tea into a lake or river seems absurd.  Although Republicans are now jumping on the bandwagon, this really was started by outside-of-the-beltway types.  A website has even been made to coordinate the nationwide protests, taxdayteaparty.com.  Using Facebook and Twitter, they have expanded what seemed to be a corny idea for protests into a semi-national movement.

All you have to do is google tax day tea party, and you will see.  Virtually every major city of any significance is having a meeting on April 15th, tax day.  At least 3o0 cities at last count.  Now, there is clearly some fringe elements involved as well, including groups such as the state sovereignty movement, but overall this is a well organized and relatively rational group of people.  Some early tea parties have had huge responses.  One party in Fullerton, CA last month had 10-15,000 protestors.

US Map showing tax day tea parties

Liberal activists, in their usual manner, are trying to ostracize these groups even before the protests get started.  Rachel Maddow of MSNBC, Air America (and their three listeners), DailyKos and other have gotten a lot of mileage out of this.  The Huffington Post is planning on sending what they call ‘citizen reporters’ to the parties; whether they will be reporters or instigatorsagitators will left to be seen.  Even the more ‘moderate’ CNN has been reluctant to discuss the Tea Party fad.  But as usual, they miss the point.  The parties are not about proving anything.

It is about a symbolic gesture to focus what many are feeling; no more, no less.  These people have tapped into a public level of anxiety and anger regarding the current Democrat trend of tax increases and huge government incursion into the private sector.  Most of these people are not wealthy by any standard.  So these are mainly middle class people who realize that the budget deficits and increasing power grab by this administration will ultimately fall on their shoulders, not to mention their children and grandchildren, with long term economic ripple effects.

Well, more power to them.  Our country needs a conservative grass roots movement.  As usual, the mainstream media and others in the Washington beltway are missing the undercurrent of angst going through a large portion of our society because of the way our government is run.  Our so-called conservative leaders have not been able to excite too many…maybe these folks can light a fire.