Valley Tea Party Wrap-Up
I know that I’m a little late to the parade on this one—however, the interest in this story is undeniable. Indeed, I have had an incredible week traffic-wise on this blog simply from people looking for local tea parties. The tea parties have been knocked by liberals and the media, stating that they were an “astroturf” effort funded and spurred on by large corporations (Although it you believe Janene Gorafalo, comedianne and, apparently, noted neurologist, it’s the white supremacists and their “limbic brains” who are to blame). Certainly, I think there is some element of lingering anger over Obama’s win (particularly given that some protesters focused on non-economic issues), and Fox News certainly didn’t hurt the movement. However, the numbers and the results for a Wednesday afternoon, along with the numerous Facebook invites I received, show that this was a movement that was picked up by grassroots conservatives. This showed in local efforts.
For a round the state overview of Tea Parties, I would suggest you head over to Crystal Clear Conservative. However, I did want to point out some highlights from press coverage of events in Harrisonburg and Winchester. First up: The Daily News Record:
Kelly Chevalier took to the microphone on the south porch of the Rockingham County Courthouse on Wednesday to voice her concerns about rising federal government debt and what it means for future generations, including her two children.
“It’s hard to understand what a trillion dollars is,” she said while her audience tried to protect itself from the rain.
…..
In Harrisonburg, between 150 and 200 people came out during lunchtime for the coordinated nationwide event, timed to coincide with the day federal income taxes are due.
Some in the audience said they vote but otherwise are not politically active. But their anger over rising government spending and debt levels, which they said could lead to higher taxes, led them to protest.
…..
Among those Chevalier, 38, spoke to was her husband, Greg, who held their 2-year-old daughter, Sarah. Their son, Charles, 11, was at John Wayland Elementary School.
Both parents said they were concerned about the national debt’s impact on their children’s lives.
“We should only do what our generation can pay for,” said Greg Chevalier, 44, a James Madison University employee.
“It’s going to be paid back in loss of freedom,” Kelly Chevalier said of the debt.
“When you lose your economic freedom,” her husband added, “you are going to lose your social freedom.”
Dee Davis, an organizer of the Harrisonburg event, said more people than she expected turned out in the rain.
Davis, 45, of Harrisonburg, said she became involved in the tea party movement because it was better than yelling back at the television, newspaper and Internet reports.
“For me, this is a positive way to channel anger over a situation that I feel is out of control,” she said.
The event, she said, was about more than taxes or government spending.
“It’s about obtrusive government power; [the] government overstepping its bounds,” she said.
Onward to Winchester, and the Winchester Star, who had comments from one of the young protesters:
Handley High School senior Stuart Caudill told the crowd that excessive federal deficit spending would be a burden to his generation.
“It’s wrong to steal our future before we have a chance to succeed,” he said.
All of the event’s speakers — which included Shenandoah University economics professor Clifford Thies and state Sen. Jill Holtzman-Vogel, R-Upperville — were well-received by the crowd, which chanted along during some of the addresses and enthusiastically sang “America (My Country ’Tis of Thee)” and ”God Bless America.”
City resident Bobby Lilly said he attended the event because he is concerned about Obama’s stimulus package.
“I would be fine if tax dollars were being used [just] for infrastructure,” Lilly said, adding that spending tax money on failing financial companies is a mistake.
“Lehman Brothers went down, and we’re all still here,” he said, referring to the financial institution that went bankrupt last fall.
Married couple Ned Wilson and Deb Leonard listened to the protest speeches while holding aloft a huge yellow “Don’t Tread On Me” flag.
Meanwhile, the Daily has an excerpt of the organizer’s speech, where he correctly points out that this problem didn’t exactly start on Obama’s watch:
Speaker and rally emcee Andrew Nicholson told the crowd that people across the country at more than 750 rallies “are telling the federal government ‘we are taxed enough already.’”
“We demand accountability from this and also the previous Republican administration — accountability on where our billions and billions and billions of our tax dollars are disappearing to,” Nicholson said. “We demand that the government stops bailing out failing companies and failed ideologies.”
And from a Shenandoah University economist:
Clifford Thies, a professor of economics and finance at Shenandoah University, warned about the effects of deficit spending and the accumulation of debt by the U.S. government. Thies noted that historically, as governments raise taxes, their economies fall.
“We are slightly older than 200 years and time of corruption is setting in,” Thies said. “Our hope is that democracy will allow us to be self-reforming.”
Finally, Byron York has a more poetic (and must read) take of Winchester’s events in the Washington Examiner:
And thus the tea parties. This rally, which about 300 people braved the rain, wind, and 45-degree temperatures to attend, was a small-town, homemade affair. There were no Washington activists, no Fox News stars, nobody from outside the local area. It began with the Pledge of Allegiance and a capella renditions of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and “America the Beautiful.” It ended with “God Bless America.” There were lots flags and patriotism and quotations from the Founding Fathers.
This is not a rich place. According to the census, the median household income in Winchester is $44,808, significantly less than the statewide Virginia median of $59,575, a number that includes the affluent suburbs of Washington. Less than one in four adults here has a bachelor’s degree or higher. And with the economic downturn, particularly in the housing business, many are in rough situations.
“I started out with three or four workers, and it’s down to me,” Ken Hersh, the painting contractor, told me. “I had my sons working with me. It’s bad when you have to tell your sons to find another job.”
“You laid off your sons?”
“I laid off my sons. That’s bad.”
Questions remain: Will the momentum keep moving here? Will people wake up to misguided spending at ALL levels of government? Is this the nadir of the conservative movement, resorting to street level protests featuring a mish-mash of misguided populists, principled conservatives, and simply outraged citizens? Or is this the beginning of a revived conservative movement, that provides pragmatic solutions based on solid principles?
Questions abound, but only the next few months can answer them.
