The conservative roadshow

I can’t figure out what the Washington Post was afraid of – diversity of thought? But they wouldn’t publish this, so it’s up to you to decide whether it was my mistake for submitting this there or theirs for not running it. I kept it right on their self-imposed 800 word limit.

Last Thursday Sarah Palin began a tour to promote her book Going Rogue, selecting Grand Rapids, Michigan as the first venue. Her book tour winds through much of America’s heartland, traveling along the byways to such places as Noblesville, Indiana, Washington, Pennsylvania, and Springfield, Missouri – there’s even a stop at Fort Hood, Texas for good measure.

It’s reminiscent of several other bus tours and events occurring earlier this summer which mostly pertained to health care reform, energy policy, and an expanding government; tours that drew attendees who felt their voices were not being heard otherwise.

As examples, the group Our Country Deserves Better sponsored two separate bus tours dubbed the TEA Party Express. The original began in August and culminated at the 9-12 Taxpayer Rally in Washington, D.C. Its fall edition traveled mostly through the western and southern states and wrapped up in Orlando earlier this month. Both drew crowds ranging in size from hundreds to thousands at each of the whistle stops along the tour. Similar bus treks were arranged by the anti-Obamacare group Patients First – whose Hands Off My Health Care tour is ongoing – and the American Energy Alliance, whose tour enlisted opposition to the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade legislation. While those stops drew smaller audiences ranging from dozens to hundreds, hopping on a decorated bus to tour the nation and spread a message proved to be a effective method of drawing attention to a cause, particularly in small- to medium-size cities where a bus stop could be seen as a major media event.

Most interesting about this populist phenomenon is, with the obvious exception of Sarah Palin’s star power, most of these bus tours featured speakers and performers who didn’t have a lot of name recognition but still carried a message which struck a chord with the target audience. In some cases, speakers featured came across their celebrity more or less accidentally, such as Samuel Wurzelbacher, better known to most as “Joe the Plumber”, or Kenneth Gladney, the victim (or provoker, depending on who you believe) of a beatdown by SEIU members at a St. Louis-area town hall meeting in August.

The September 12th rallies in Washington and scattered throughout the country may have been the best example of this populist grassroots movement because few who spoke at the rallies were politically connected. Most of the speakers worked for advocacy groups toiling in the trenches for limited government solutions to America’s problems and presented themselves as a contrast to the solutions placed before Congress. At those rallies the draw was the message, not the speaker, with the added value of participants having the opportunity to see they weren’t alone in their thinking.

Because these events proved successful in attracting notice in out-of-the-way places and via the alternative media outlets on the internet, those on the liberal side of the political spectrum have half-heartedly attempted to do the same thing. Yet that approach doesn’t seem to catch on nearly as well with activists on the left than it works as a populist call to middle America.

As the countdown begins to the 2010 elections, though, the question for tour sponsors is whether they can keep up their fever pitch through next November and raise the money required to fund their efforts. But it also is up to those who took the time to attend and support these tours – people who are fighting to limit the size and scope of government – to stay involved as well.

Many on the left and the media called supporters at conservative events or citizens who spoke out at town hall meetings during the summer “teabaggers” and dismissed them as Astroturf, not true grassroots. But now with the release of her book and subsequent tour, the elites and inside-the-Beltway crowd have returned to their favorite sport of Campaign 2008 – sniping against Sarah Palin.

Yet all the slings and arrows directed at Palin only further steel the resolve of those who support the TEA Party movement, and most protesters are staying the course even with the catcalls and lack of success on several fronts – the House passed both health care reform and Waxman-Markey despite the “angry mob’s” efforts to persuade representatives otherwise.

Palin-bashers and those who call the pro-freedom side teabaggers should beware, though – those who voted in favor of Pelosicare and cap-and-tax will provide a target for new tour efforts once attention turns back to politics after the holidays. With Congress struggling to pass a number of measures unpopular with the public and President Obama hoping to find the magic formula to bring back our moribund economy, the summer of 2010 may bring a repeat of the bus tours which marked 2009 as the summer of public discontent.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.