from Human Events

Tax Day Tea Party Coverage

by Connie Hair
04/16/2009

Good-naturedly imitating the 1773 Boston Tea Party, thousands of everyday folks gathered in cities around the country yesterday for tax revolt tea parties to protest the out of control spending by Congress and the Obama administration.

Mainstream media dissmissed the importance of the protests apparently because any popular revolt against the Obama administration couldn’t fit into their narrative.

(HUMAN EVENTS is gathering data on the lost productivity suffered as a result of these protests. In usual protests, this is not a concern because the protesters are liberals. Conservatives had to actually take time off from work to participate, which inevitably created a reduction of US GDP, however slight).

In the Orwellian coverage we’ve all come to expect from CNN, uber-liberal Anderson Cooper made an obscure sexual remark about the protesters. It apparently referred to a gay sexual act which was immediately understood by MSNBC but no one else. Later in the day when CNN deigned to cover a protest in Chicago, Susan Roesgen was nearly apoplectic when a man referenced Abraham Lincoln, saying his behavior was not fit for viewing by families, all the while taking a cheap shot at ratings giant Fox News who provided extensive live coverage of events throughout the day (see Epaminondas' take on this piece of crap reporting below. Video of it further down in my post on it -- MR).

At the rally at the White House, over 2,000 hardy souls braved freezing temperatures and driving rain to hear speakers including former Reagan-era United Nations ambassador, Alan Keyes, and Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist. The day got off to a bumpy start in Lafayette Park when at 7:00 am, over 1 million tea bags were delivered to the park but organizers lacked proper permitting for the delivery, so the teabags were confiscated. Ending on another bump in the road, the White House was put into lockdown when one protester threw a box of tea bags over the fence and a robot was dispatched by the Secret Service to check the package for explosives.

The absolute best protest sign of the day: Obamanomics=Trickle-Up Poverty

Local organizers around the country used the internet and social media to drive crowd attendance nationwide. In news reports throughout the day, they proudly claimed the success of their events as literally thousands upon thousands of people attended in cities large and small. There were estimates of upwards of 20,000 in Atlanta, Georgia, where Fox News’ Sean Hannity covered the event live.

Glenn Beck provided coverage at the Alamo in San Antonia, Texas, where police estimated the crowd there at over 16,500. HUMAN EVENTS columnist Ted Nugent entertained the crowd while Texas Gov. Rick Perry publicly entertained the idea of secession.

Secession? Well, Texas thinks it can secede because it joined the Union by treaty, not by accession. Hmm.

In Sacramento, California, Neil Cavuto covered the gathering of over 10,000 at the state capitol building. Atlanta radio talk show host Neal Boortz spoke at the event in South Carolina where an estimated 15,000 attended. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich attended the New York protest where an estimated 12,000 attended. The story was the same across the country.

House Republican leader John Boehner (Ohio) joined Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) at a rally attended by thousands in Bakersfield, California.

“Across our nation, thousands of Americans are participating in taxpayer tea parties today for one simple reason: overtaxed families and small businesses have had enough,” Boehner said. “They’ve had enough of Democrats forcing taxpayers to pick up the tab for more wasteful spending instead of working together to make the tough fiscal decisions Americans are forced to make each and every day. They’ve had enough of seeing their hard-earned tax dollars wasted on pork-barrel spending that won’t create jobs, rebuild their savings, or get our economy moving again. And they’ve had enough of Congress and the White House mortgaging our children and grandchildren’s future by saddling them with mountains of debt destined to bankrupt our country.”

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Republican Conference, was asked about the tea parties during a television appearance. Pence said, “I really think something happened last fall when the American people saw the prior administration and the Democrat Congress willing to get out our grandchildren's credit cards and bail out bad decisions on Wall Street. And the stimulus bill and the budget that was just passed are all just adding steam to that anxiety. … I think there are many Americans that are deeply concerned about the sense that Washington, D.C. is -- with its massive increases in spending and bailouts and borrowing and more taxes -- out of step with the values of Republicans, Democrats and Independents across this country. … And what's happening today, what's been happening at the grassroots ever since, I think, is a growing tidal wave of discontent in this country that knows we can't borrow and spend and bail our way back to a prosperous America. And they're seeing this administration, this majority in Congress continuing along that vein. And what you're seeing today in all 50 states are Americans -- good, decent, hard working Americans that are taking time out of their everyday lives to take a stand for fiscal discipline and fiscal sanity.”

The question lingering after the rousing day is whether this will be a one-day event, or if the loosely-organized folks around the country can sustain a movement of the magnitude to change the makeup of Congress in 2010.