Identity crisis; Teabaggers unmasked

April 17, 10:28 AMSnohomish County Progressive ExaminerChad Shue

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A week before the now infamous "Teabag America" parties littered the countryside I wrote that our Seattle Conservative Examiner, Bryan Myrick, was a bit worried about the possibility of these events being disrupted by such radical leftist organizations as ACORN. He wrote at the time:

Negative images in the press may not dissuade those already active in their local Tea Parties, but they will turn off undecided minds by way of the stigmatizing that can be accomplished through a coordinated infiltration campaign the likes of which George Soros’ network or the liberally-leaning ACORN organization are capable of orchestrating...

And so it was with great interest that I waited to see just who would be appearing at these Fox News Channel sponsored events. Alas, as I switched from channel to channel and from blog to blog I did not find any mention of organized "leftist infiltration." And so one might believe that Bryan was satisfied with the outcome. Well, yes and no:

"Despite being labeled by some as ‘racist’, ‘anti-tax’ or ‘anti-government’, in addition to being smeared with a barrage of juvenile sexual innuendo coming from such accomplished faux journalists as Anderson Cooper of CNN and Keith Olbermann of MSNBC, thousands of individual citizens gathered for tea party protests on Wednesday at more than a dozen locations in the Puget Sound area.  The local events were part of a national event that, according to Pajamas Media Television, was estimated to include more than 280,000 participants and the numbers are still being tabulated.

I attended the protests in Bellevue and Seattle, each of which appeared to draw crowds of no less than 1,000 each.  Those in attendance appeared to come from all backgrounds and walks of life.  In contrast to the prejudgments of many of the left-wingers trolling sites like Twitter and posting to sites such as Daily Kos, the participants displayed a remarkably positive attitude in juxtaposition with the outrage that is at the heart of all protests.  Simply put, the crowds were diverse, civil and smiling.  People were brought together by a common sense of indignation for: runaway government spending, the near-certitude of massive tax hikes in the near future, stealth taxes like cap and trade legislation and a general sentiment that the many politicians have concluded that the results of the last election was the equivalent to the public signing a big blank check."

Now being one who will freely admit to having cast a few of my own aspersions toward the loosely defined mobs crowds who might show up to these events I thought I might need to address Myrick's displeasure at the mixing of labels and descriptions by those of us on the left to the teabaggers attendees but, much to great surprise I have found another local source to direct Bryan's attention to. Allow me to introduce the Seattle Conservative Examiner; Thor Tolo. That's right (pun intended) Seattle now has two Conservative Examiners. Well it seems Mr. Tolo also attended a Seattle tea party and apparently came away with the same sense of identity confusion as those of us on the left.

“Stuck between Barack and a hard place!” was as clever as “Obama’s not my Messiah; I already have One!” But too many protestors believed Obama-bashing was the purpose of the rally instead of voicing anger over the regrettable runaway spending ironically begun under the new president’s predecessor.

This rally in Seattle seemed more focused on an untested president than an unprecedented test. After all, it is much easier to make an 18th century statement by dumping large bags of tea into a harbor than it is to sustain a 21st century rebellion by dropping tiny bags of tea into a mailbox at one dollar per pop.

Like the proverbial rush into battle in Jeremiah 8:6 [New King James] – “each pursuing his own course” – we saw hundreds of soldiers frothing to fight, but awkwardly conflicted by confusing messages.

One gentleman praised the uncompromising leadership of George W. Bush, who somehow managed to outspend President Clinton’s eight-year tab before the first tank had ever crossed into Iraq six years ago.

Another fellow professed hatred toward Obama “for one reason and one reason only,” and that was his having started this whole bailout mess. Never mind that Bush had poked the hornets’ nest last summer..."

Bryan Myrick and Thor Tolo, Seattle Examiner's one-two Conservative punch

You see Bryan the problem that so many of us in the country had with these 'grassroots driven but nationally sponsored' events was that there was not one clearly defined agenda and, even for those who claimed to be protesting run-away spending, their only target appeared to be the current president while turning a blind-eye to the previous one. There is a word for that... And while you were concerned about these events being overrun by leftist radicals who might bring damage to "the cause" maybe you should have been more concerned about folks like one of the bloggers from Washblog interviewed at the Issaquah tea party. "fake consultant" begins by describing the scene in Issaquah and then introduces us to a random party goer:

"It was a lovely not raining afternoon (this time of the year, that’s a real treat), and the steps of the Issaquah City Hall create a nice backdrop for a gathering. At noon on a Wednesday about 120 people are gathered, holding signs, and reacting to the honks of passing traffic. A “patriot”, in blue coat and tricorner hat, was present.

After a period of standing out in front of City Hall, most of the group left to march up and down the street; and it was at this point that I approached a woman who had chosen to remain behind to see if I might ask her a few questions about the event.

Where you see quotations, they are exact transcripts from the recording. Her comments are in boldface. Ellipses (...) are used only to indicate pauses in the conversation, not to indicate “trimming” of the quotes.

One of the first things we addressed was her concern that her rights to gather and speak freely might be threatened:

“...You bet they are” she answered, “Obama is about, he’s more like, a, a he wants to be a leader himself, he’s the leader, OK, but he doesn’t speak for America...and he is not really, really, the President of the United States.”

I asked her how she had reached that conclusion:

“He hasn’t proven that he’s a citizen, he hasn’t proven that he’s a citizen, he’s a liar...he, he, says one thing and he does another all the time...so, you know...he is not a patriot. I was born and raised in America, even people I grew up, with, that became Americans, love America. People come to America to be free. You know what I feel he’s taking away from us? Our freedom.”

I asked her what laws are being proposed that would make her feel that way, to which she replied:

“Taking all that money and doing with it as he pleases, without confer--, letting people take a vote on it on the right to do this that’s the Constitution, the 9th and the...”

“So Congress didn’t vote on any of that...”

“He is getting them to do what he wants, people are doing what he wants, because, he has people like Farrakhan, he has a lot of people behind him that are not for America. OK, and he’s a Muslim, let’s just remember that, OK, he’s not an American patriot, he’s a Muslim—“

You kinda get the picture. Maybe if you want the country to take your position on the issues of government spending and deficits and "bailouts" seriously you might want to spend a bit less time in the park with Sean Hannity and more time writing here to address the issue and not just the current administration.

Peace,
Chad Shue

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