Why did the 'Taxed Enough Already' turn out in droves for Tea Parties?
By Pete Riehm
Mobile Free Press
This past tax day April 15, 2009 a couple million Americans gathered at loosely organized TEA (Taxed Enough Already) parties around the country. Yes, millions! The various web sites registered over 2,000 locations and most had more than 1,000 in attendance.
South Alabama had at least three separate TEA parties. NBC15 estimated about 2,000 in downtown Mobile. There were at least 1,000 in Fairhope and another 250 who had to work showed up at Hillcrest and Airport Boulevard at 5:30 p.m. These were peaceful, unpretentious, but inspirational assemblies.
Media coverage was mixed. However, in the aftermath all manner of misunderstanding, misperception and downright misinformation is being attributed to or directed at the TEA parties.
From Washington, we hear this was nothing more than a publicity stunt funded by billionaires. Nancy Pelosi smugly dubbed it an “Astroturf” movement vice grassroots. Senior White House advisor, David Axelrod, suggested it is an “unhealthy response to a tough economic climate.”
Some locally have criticized the TEA party as no more than sour grapes over the past election. Some even suggest racist motives. In short, the TEA parties are being dismissed as a few disgruntled dupes. The Democrats deplore them as certifiable right-wing extremists and Republicans tacitly smirk thinking their base is reawakening.
They are all wrong!
Most of the post-TEA party commentary comes from people who were not even there. Here in Mobile no one was paid. Organizers used their money to put these events on. They spread the word at work, in church, at school, in the paper, on the radio, and on Facebook. And, folks just came!
Attendance was purely spontaneous, but they did not come as Democrats or Republicans. Both were about equally disgruntled and without majority. They were young and old, and folks of almost every political stripe and many who really had no stripes at all.
All the various folks at the TEA parties did share a few things, like they earnestly believe government should work for “we the people.” They also have great faith in the Constitution. Our government should effectively perform the enumerated duties using our taxes as efficiently as possible and otherwise leave us to freely work and worship as we choose. These were good common Americans with common core beliefs.
These folks are genuinely moved to action. They are not anti-Obama or anarchists, but rather people who have awakened to an incredibly out of control federal government that believes it has no limits on its power. There is outrage about runaway spending, but the real danger comes from exponentially increasing spending which ultimately demands more taxing or printing. All this money simply concentrates power in an overbearing and irresistible government which cannot help but oppress all us puny individuals buried deep within massive public programs.
Our founding fathers warned us against any concentration of power as a threat to our freedom. The people at the TEA parties do not think this all happened in the last three months or the last eight years. They recognize the incremental erosion of the Constitution has continued for decades.
The average American is angry with Democrats for taking a quantum leap into wildly unrestrained spending causing the current panic, but they are furious with Republicans who have betrayed any trust of the traditional American concept of limited government. Both parties in Washington worship at the altar of big government and therefore are both to blame.
The majority of TEA party goers are at least open to if not supportive of a third party and quite frankly who can blame them. If I thought a third party had any chance of restoring our Constitutional Republic, I would be the first to join. However, surveying the current landscape, a third party cannot achieve anything more than a spoiler in a three way contest.
At this point, the TEA parties would best be served by demanding term limits. Send the entrenched ruling class home.
Hopefully the Republican Party can be reborn and reclaim its mantle as the party of limited government and lower taxes. Words and slogans are inadequate. Republicans must stand tall, deliver comprehensive reform and provide courageous leadership to again earn the public’s trust and their votes.
The country is at a crossroads, so Republicans must press ahead but remember Ronald Reagan’s 1976 exhortation, "Our people look for a cause to believe in. Is it a third party we need, or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors, which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people."
(Riehm is a retired U.S. Navy commander and chairman of Mobile GOP.)
