After the Tea Party

Update: Video of the party crasher is now available here and near the end of this post.

The Ukiah Valley Patriots’ Tea Party in front of the Ukiah Courthouse on Tax Day went really well. The organizers did a great job and the crowd was enthusiastic and fired up. I got there at right around noon, which was when it was scheduled to start. After attending the first monthly meeting a couple of weeks ago, I know that the organizers stick to their schedule, and they did it this time, too.

As soon as the clock hit 12, Duane, the male half of the husband-wife team that got the whole thing together, led the recitation of the pledge of allegiance. Another gentleman whose name I missed then gave a short non-denominational prayer. After the prayer, there were shouts of "Let's party!" which kicked off the Tea Party protest into full swing.

The crowd started out at about 50. About halfway through the first hour, I estimated at least 70 or 80, but it was hard to get a good count.

I never realized how difficult it is to count how many people there are in a group that lines up along a block. Some people spent their time talking to each other — I would guess either networking, commiserating, or both — while others were enthusiastically waving their signs at the passing cars.

There were several younger people in the crowd. The youngest attendee was a 3 month old baby.

I let the parents know that we might put this up on Pajamas Media (which I haven’t done yet). They wanted to know what kind of website it is. Is it conservative? It took me a few seconds to even come up with an answer. I never really thought of PJ Media as rightwing, actually, which is why the question threw me off. It has its share of liberal columnists although its more popular personalities tend to be on the right side of the political spectrum. The only answer I could come up with is, “It’s definitely not leftwing.” That seemed to mollify them a bit.

Another young attendee, all of 17 months old, was accompanied by her Don’t-Tread-On-Me-shirt-wearing dad. I spoke with them a little later, and she seemed to be taking in her surroundings pretty well although she was kind of late for her nap.

The signs were handmade, with some signage that I had not seen before. (But then, this is only my second Tea Party.)

(His sign says "No Taxation Without Deliberation)

The sign in the forefront reads "Cleanse Congress!! Starting with Mike Thompson!"

Mike Thompson is our cap-and-trade-supporting, Obamacare-voting, stimulus-spending Nancy boy congresscritter. (It's not name-calling when it's true!)

The sign below was made by an 11-year-old. Her grandfather was really proud of her for taking time out to make this sign for him.

This family was one of the first people there. They were still there after I had to leave early an hour later.

Lots of flags waving.

The couple below came from Boonville. I spoke to them for a few minutes. They explained that they didn't know anything about the Tea Party until they saw a flyer posted at the local Post Office. The next day, the flyer was gone. They did make it though.

Two characters were easily recognizable. Santa Claus:

And Davy Crocket:

I don’t think this guy will want to be labeled as a “character” but I thought his shirt was funny. (I was in grade school and high school during the Reagan years, and politics sort of flew over my head. Now that I’m older, I really appreciate what President Reagan had done for our country and for the rest of the Free World.)

(And yes, I should spend more time talking to them, and asking them things like their names. I never claimed I’m a journalist!)

I believe this gentleman above was our bouncer/sergeant-at-arms. We were forewarned about possible infiltration by anti-Tea Party folks, and he was making sure everything was legit. Someone had a sign ready that said, "Infiltrator" on it, but I didn't get a picture.

A guy came by to talk to some of the Tea Party folks about the protest. I didn't catch most of what was said, except for the part where the gentleman said he only wants to make the country better and Europe seems to be his model. I heard words like "socialist" and "fascist" being uttered, which presumably were referring to specific countries, and this guy asked if the Tea Party folks around him have even visited those countries. One woman said she lived in one of the Asian countries, and another guy said, "Yes, I've been to Europe."

"Don't you think it's better there?"

The answer was a resounding, "No." I think the guy was genuinely surprised. There was some more exchange, then the guy thanked everyone for doing what they're doing, waved goodbye, and left. It was pretty good-humored, and he was even smiling the whole time. (I know him personally, and I think he really was just curious about the protest.)

Three generations. How do you explain to a 3-month-old that she owes trillions because the grownups in charge are less competent than she is?

We didn’t really have many counter protesters, which was a little surprising, considering the demographics of the county is about 60% Democrat/liberal. One explanation is that, since the protest wasn't well-publicized (the news item announcing the protest came out in the local paper that morning, in the back page), the local anti-Tea Party people didn't have time to organize a counter protest. Or maybe they were just surprised that there would be another protest at all.

There was a lady who stood across the street with her anti-war sign, though.

It would be hard for me to label her as necessarily a “counter protester” since, technically, war is costing us money, and maybe she just felt that that’s another “unnecessary federal expense.” The Tea Party is all about fiscal conservatism and small government. I think if the anti-war protesters are just against spending money on wars, they might be surprised to find themselves folded into the Tea Party movement. Unfortunately, I think most of them believe that the money spent on wars should be spent on big government stuff instead, like welfare and other government giveaways.

Uhm, okay then. I guess that does make her a counter protester.

There was a little bit of a commotion later because a woman was yelling in the middle of the protest about how Obama is really doing a good thing and that she would love to pay more taxes. Oh, and that we're voting against our own interest which makes us fools. That was after she said that she'll get healthcare for her children (that's why Obama is good). The difference between her and the Tea Party folks couldn’t be put more starkly than that. (Maybe my next Tea Party sign should say “I vote against my own selfish interest!”)

UkiahTV interviewed her. I got the tail end of the interview, when she said, "Let them get the facts straight." She also said that we're "misinformed" and that Obama had cut taxes.

One of the protesters caught up to her as she stood up to leave, and asked her about her claims that Obama cut taxes. She kept saying we should look it up. What about the Bush tax cuts? "You mean the tax cuts for the rich?"

Since she also claimed that we are misinformed, I was surprised to hear her say that you need a 2/3 vote (presumably in the Senate) to get anything done.

Our Tea Party guy did give an interview with UkiahTV afterwards, which I thought was great. I personally agree with him in practically everything he said about the government.

I took this picture as I was leaving and was across the street. A car came honking by and people were waving flags from inside the car. For some reason, that really made me feel good.

I could hear the horns honking from a block away. The two pictures below were taken from the front of the public library:

(It's an 18-200mm VR lens on a Nikon D70s. I've never been happier with that camera than I was yesterday.)

Someone at the library asked what the protest was about. I said it's a Tea Party. I don't think she knows much about it, because she then said, "Well, maybe if they're protesting against tobacco or something."

In the end, this last picture is what the day was all about to me:

The Patriots are on the march.

One can take it as a promise.

Or maybe a warning.

In any case, it's a beginning.