Houston Tea Party Wrap-up
What do you get when you mix a major economic slump, a new president with decidedly liberal ideals, an economic plan that calls for unprecedented levels of spending and debt, and at least 4000 Texans concerned about the situation? Call it a Texas Tea Party!
First, let me get in a big thank you to Michael and the guys for hot-posting the pics and commentary earlier in the evening. It couldn’t have been easy dealing with the stream of texts I was sending.
Back on point, I had the opportunity to talk to a number of the protesters and almost to a person the reason given for their attendance tonight was a genuine, strong desire to see government brought to heel. Why? In order to preserve liberty and freedom for everyone but most importantly future generations. It may sound corny, but I heard that refrain repeatedly from audience and stage alike tonight.
That’s one of the reasons that I simply must say that the Houston tea party was a very cool event. You never know what to expect when a crowd of emotional people get together the vent their frustrations, but the protest was very much a family-friendly scene. At no time was there even the slightest hint of the mob mentality that we’ve all seen in video footage of protests the world over, notably in our own country in the 1960s and in London this year.
Many protesters had their children with them, a good percentage of whom had made up their own signs, though probably not with out a bit of help from mom and dad. Even more telling were the signs held above heads with statements such as “I’m here to protect my granddaughter’s future”.
On this point the people spoke clearly in Houston tonight. Government, they said, was intended in this country to be controlled by the people and not the other way around. In the eyes of these Texans, this is a lesson the Obama administration needs to be taught and the more sharply and surely the better.
The people I talked to were willing to acknowledge and even criticize the fiscal policies of the Bush administration. But the events that have unfolded since President Obama’s victory over John McCain have not been lost on them. Nor has the new president’s plan to outspend President Bush by hundreds of billions of dollars each year of his administration. And then there’s the small matter of the unfunded trillion dollar bailout of the financial system. It’s understandable why people are angry with Washington these days.
Who are these protesters? Mostly ordinary Americans like me. On average, exactly like me. Certainly there were people of all shapes, sizes, creeds, and colors in attendance, but the audience was primarily Caucasian in tone and between 30 and 50 in age. Good, solid, square, white-bread America. The kind of people about whom Jimmy Stewart said in It’s a Wonderful Life: “this rabble you’re talking about… they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community.”
That’s who was in attendance at the Houston tea party tonight – the very people who do the lion’s share of the tax-paying and church-going in this country, the hard-working, faithful, middle and upper-middle class who should constitute a postcard picture of the American dream and would, were they not weighed down by a 40+% tax burden, most of which has been incrementally imposed by a massive, controlling federal government.
Judging from their response to the event’s kickoff, a reading from the Bible, the crowd was substantially Christian as well. The message in 1 Samuel 8 is that a people should be wary of men put in authority over them, for the power a king – or a president – wields is beyond the imagination of most of us. Israel came to regret the appointment of Saul as the country’s first king and the parallel was not lost on the mostly conservative and libertarian protesters.
This fact will surely rile the liberal left who are justifiably frightened by the spontaneous combustion of the conservative “counter-culture”, if such a description can be applied to the salt of the Earth.
As you might suspect, the finger-pointing has already started. Among others, the seriously-needs-watching Jane Hamsher is busy conjuring a right-wing conspiracy at HuffPo, her own perch at FDL apparently not being connected enough for this effort.
What Jane and her compatriots are missing – of course – is summed up nearly by what one man said to me today.
“Even if Rupert Murdoch is paying for the whole darn thing himself the thousands of people who showed up here were still motivated to come here all on their own.”
That’s the one thing that scares the left – getting a taste of their own medicine. The liberal movement that took over American streets, universities, and culture in the 1960s and 1970s was based on rabble-rousing, name-calling, and even violence against the so-called “establishment”.
Now the left is the establishment and they fear the very tactics they used to force their agenda on a silent majority of their fellow citizens. Are the tea parties a sign of things to come?
U.S. Congressman John Culberson (R) of Houston was probably wondering the same thing as he walked the crowd. I had the chance to talk to him briefly about the event and calls for terms limits, something I’ll discuss in a future post.
The answer is that it depends on whether the people who came out today will follow through on their beliefs and turn this event into a movement.
In that respect, my own actions may be revealing. You see, I have this little obligation called a job that demands my attention 8-10 hours every day and, with a 2 hour drive ahead of me and this column to write, I decided to skip the event’s nightcap, the symbolic march on the Houston post office.
As I was walking to my truck I chanced to see the protesters marching and chanting past the Houston Chronicle’s headquarters, their spirits and signs both held high, the sense of order and decorum that had governed the crowd’s behavior still largely intact as a goodly number of them saw the event through to its conclusion.
You see, the middle-class’ very penchant for productive work works against them when it comes to creating a mass protest movement for one simple reason – they have other things to do besides walking the streets with signs and taking over public buildings to bully others into submission.
Then again, as I crossed the street into the parking lot a man, presumedly homeless, though looks can be deceiving, called to me asking if I could spare a dollar. I gave him 5.
I say this not to impress anyone. Far from it, as Matthew says, it is better to give in secret so as not to boast. The point is simple: average Americans can and do rise to the occasion when the need arises.
That time has come, as 4000 Houstonians demonstrated tonight. Our government needs to remember the purpose of its existence and at whose mercy it serves.
Amen.
Follow Us!
Keep up with all of our articles by subscribing to our RSS feed. Also be sure to follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.
-->15 Responses to “Houston Tea Party Wrap-up”
Comment from Jason
Time April 16, 2009 at 8:24 am PDT
Thank you, The wonderful world of Politics is something I had never had a interest in. But today it’s so very important to get involved before we lose our freedom. My life is simply to busy to be involved but I fear for the future of our beautiful country so I just do it anyway. My hats off to all the people who showed up and my city had some good turn outs even though it’s about the most Libatard state in America. Seattle WA had a number of Tea Parties and I was in the downtown seattle hosted about 500. Great job can’t wait for the next one on the 4th of July.
Comment from TH
Time April 16, 2009 at 9:08 am PDT
You know what? This article actually targets what the purpose of the tea parties was SUPPOSED to be: a protest against overly bloated spending. The falsehood associated to this protest was what certain groups and news stations (I won’t name it, but it rhymes with Box Cues) was trying to portray it as: a protest against Obama tax hikes.
I don’t like the unfunded nature of these bailouts like every other American, and I agree that during the Bush administration our gov’t was severely bloated and spent WAY to much (long before the 2006 elections, and continued afterwards as well, so the finger pointing should be all around). I hope that this movement really moves into the direction of creating a simpler and BETTER tax policy – whether it be FairTax, another new system, or a stripped down tax code.
I understand what the Obama admin is doing though with their enormous spending though. If the federal government does not spend all this money, then where will the economic turn around come from? There is no iPod for US economy to produce to turn this around. The other question then is, if we must spend all this money, where is it coming from and how will we pay it back? Well, one would be raised taxes. Another would be stripping out failed spending, failed services, failed departments, and earmark spending. From what I have read and seen of the Obama admin (his economic advisor in this case) really allowed me to better understand where they are coming from. They are looking at this economic disaster as the driving force for governmental change. They are in the data collection/analysis phase and determining what is needed vs. not needed. If you take health care, you can attribute it to nearly the largest driver of labor costs. Reduce this cost and you will reduce the burden on the companies (small businesses as well) that provide the jobs. To only focus on cutting gov’t spending is not realistic and one must focus spending on the things that matter, the things that drive the economy, the things that makes the largest positive impact on the average American like you and me.
Overall this is not a republican issue, nor is it a democratic issue and I feel like our push for better government (not larger or smaller) is starting to get a political spin, and that I feel is going to ruin this push and will discourage others from supporting it.
Comment from Michael van der Galien
Time April 16, 2009 at 10:16 am PDT
Well done Marc. Thanks for your hard work today – it must have been quite a hassle to make photos, record audio, etc. etc. send it to me, while participating in the protest nonetheless and speaking with others.
Great report. Well done.
Comment from Garland
Time April 16, 2009 at 12:54 pm PDT
@ TH: Yeah, I perfectly agree with what you are saying. I don’t think being antagonistic towards Obama’s solution to the current situation is bad at all – on the contrary Obama needs tough criticism to be a better president. The problem is that the protestors seem unaware of the dubious timing of their movement’s initiation, and they also can’t see how odd it is that their figureheads have largely stood behind Bush Jr. and idolized Reagan – presidents who exploded debt levels on ideological convictions rather than reluctant pragmatism.
The libertarian and anti-Washington sentiments that account for a good share of the teabagger movement shouldn’t be exploited by crass partisans and republican machinists, nor should it be carelessly and ignorantly mocked by left-wing voices who assume all protestors are willing tools in the right-wing chatterer’s plan to dominate the media and portray partisanship as patriotism. It’s up to the truly principled of the movement to reject manipulative and political animals like Glenn Reynolds and other obsessed anti-democrat entities.
Comment from Fraidykatt
Time April 16, 2009 at 3:02 pm PDT
Been to 2 parties now. Will go to more scheduled in the future. Sorry Michael didnt think to get pictures but will do so in future parties.
My take.
I met democrats, republicans and libertarians there and even a few people who said they were just there for the free beer…..didnt see any free beer but then I wasnt looking.
Everyone had a common denominator. They are angry with huge deficits and know that we are all going to pay more taxes. A LOT MORE TAXES. Obama is just simply hiding the fact with smoke and mirrors.
TV showed up. Local. Took some pictures and left. Radio was there with some local Talk show hosts doing live broadcasts. In fact it was interesting to watch one radio show having a stand off between a rightie and leftie as if the parties were all about them.
The parties are not. Everyone I talked too or heard talking to others shared the same theme. Taxes are not necessarily high now but they are going to be. The democrats are going to tax corporations who will rise their prices which will then make US Americans pay more so its the same thing as being taxed.
Trillions of deficits are going to mean more tax with a democrat in control of all 3 houses.
Very little animosity towards each other. Lots of anger toward 8 years plus of government run amuck.
Conclusion………..its not about a party even though the gop is trying to latch on to it. Its about common everyday people who are mad as hell at a government that just keeps on being irresponsible.
End of story. Or maybe the beginning????
Comment from Jim Culpepper
Time April 16, 2009 at 4:07 pm PDT
My wife and I attended the event. Having been married for 44 years, it was the first time we felt totally compelled to take a stand against what the majority of elected representatives and senators are doing to our country. Most of them have never worked in the private sector. Once elected to public office, they remain on the doles of the tax payers until they finally retire from office or are replaced. While “serving” the people, they are paid at least twice what the average wage earner makes, they have tremendous benefits, free perks such as trips, special parking at airports and they are treated like royalty. There most compelling drive is to make certain they get re-eleced to office. In the past eight years, they have passed spending programs and budgets that will result in my three grandchildren and hundreds of thousands of other grandchildren being burdened with taxes that they simply can’t afford to pay. Our nation has become government dependent. The mind set is taking care of people from the cradle to the grave. Capitalism is out and socialism is in. God has been replaced in the classrooms with secularism. Common decency and respect for people with faith have been replaced with stereotying and insults. The media in general is now controlled by individuals that have a liberal agenda. If you doubt this in any way, just see how the three major networks and the Houston Chronicle covered the TEA parties yesterday. Just view the way the reporter from CNN questioned the father at one of the TEA events. America better wake up and turn this country around before it is too late.
Comment from Patti Long
Time April 16, 2009 at 4:28 pm PDT
Thanks for reporting on the Houston event! Your insight is on target, and it’s refreshing to get the REAL story. Hopefully the PEOPLE will be heard and NOT biased media like CNN !
Comment from NayNay
Time April 16, 2009 at 7:15 pm PDT
The official count sheets say that 8532 people were there. As an Architect, I caclulated that there was about 5000 people inside the venue and about 1500 to 2000 that on the sidewalk surrounding the venue. The police shut down the entrance to Jones Park at around 6:00pm, when there was room for about 500 more people on the upper deck in the back where I was standing! The police said that when the maximum crowd allowed in the Jones Plaza proper was 5000 and for safety reasons, had to close the entrances and let in more people as others left. So about 10,000 Houstonians attended the rally last night!! What a day!! I was so proud. As I was leaving at 7:00 pm more people were streaming in. It was great. My mother went to the Baton Rouge rally and there were at least 10,000 people on the state capitol steps. I love this.
Pingback from Tax Day Tea Party Roundup (With Links, and Rove!) : The Sundries Shack
Time April 16, 2009 at 7:39 pm PDT
[...] Point of a Gun – Richmond, VA Donald Douglas – Orange County, CA Midnight Blue – Harrisburg, PA Marc Moore – Houston, TX Andrew Riley – Phoenix, AZ Duane Lester – Kansas City, MO Stacy McCain – Hoover, AL; [...]
Comment from c3
Time April 16, 2009 at 8:45 pm PDT
Garland;
“It’s up to the truly principled of the movement to reject manipulative and political animals like Glenn Reynolds and other obsessed anti-democrat entities.”
In other words this movement must be “pure” to be legitimate. And how often does that happen on either side of the political spectrum?
Following this logic, the anti-war protests were illegitimate because MoveOn was involved along with other politically-motivated persons and groups.
Pingback from (More) Fauxgressive Hypocrisy « The Widdershins
Time April 16, 2009 at 9:08 pm PDT
[...] is what Jane Hamsher had to say about the protesters: …they swell with teabaggy pride at the thought that they’ve demonstrated their awesome “power” to cowering [...]
Comment from Buckeye
Time April 16, 2009 at 10:06 pm PDT
Marc Mooore wrote: “Now the left is the establishment and they fear the very tactics they used to force their agenda on a silent majority . . .” As you imply, two powerful psychological forces driving large segments of the “progressive” left-wing for upwards of 50+ years have been PROJECTION and outright MALICE. It does not surprise me that they would look out across a crowd of angry but level-headed, hardworking families, empty nesters, business people, veterans, ambitious twentysomethings, etc. and see instead an unhinged mob ready to usurp the democratic process. Naturally, they would assume that the events must have been chorographed by a poltical vanguard. Of course, they would ascribe all sorts of duplitious motives to its participants. They are describing the world as they know it.
A good example of this phenomenon is the way they tried to belittle Tea Party participants by calling them “teabaggers.” I’m guessing that 90% of the folks who came out to Tea Parties yesterday did not get the joke, and that’s yet another reason for me to say, “God bless them.” The metro “progressives” assumed that everyone is familiar with the same gutter terminology.
Hey, “progressives”: when you find yourself making jokes about 70 year old grandmothers and 10 year old girls, using a slang term that has its roots in prison psychoses, you might want to take a look in the mirror. But, then, self-evaluation has never been your thing.
Comment from hms nerd
Time April 16, 2009 at 10:33 pm PDT
Has media coverage of the tea party protests been unfair? I found this video today that shows how various news outlets are reporting the story. It’s interesting to see the difference in perspectives:
Pingback from (More) Fauxgressive Hyocrisy « Electric Blues
Time April 16, 2009 at 10:40 pm PDT
[...] is what Jane Hamsher had to say about the protesters: …they swell with teabaggy pride at the thought that they’ve demonstrated their awesome “power” to cowering [...]
Comment from Interested
Time April 16, 2009 at 7:14 am PDT
Well done post Marc,
This part couldn’t be any truer
And that is something that supporters and defenders of Obama’s budgets simply will never be able to comprehend.