I suppose history does have a way of repeating itself.
While a few places have jumped the gun, the majority of tea parties inspired by an on-air rant by CNBC’s Rick Santelli will be occurring on April 15th, the dreaded day of reckoning for many American taxpayers. (This includes one in Salisbury on the steps of the Government Office Building from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.)
One thing that has struck me as hilarious is Media Matters whining about how much coverage these protests already get on Fox News. And this is a problem why? Seems to me we saw a lot of antiwar protests which made much more news than their feeble attendance would suggest they dictated.
It may be foreign to those who slavishly believe Media Matters, but there’s a lot of us who are fed up with government overspending and a lack of not only accountability but just plain humility among those who hold the pursestrings in Washington, D.C. President Obama, at the moment you may “trump us” but don’t count on that being the case after 2010 – I’m not sure you can get out enough government largesse fast enough to buy the votes you need to maintain your hold on Congress.
Still others may dismiss this as a Republican stunt, but as a member of the local GOP let me make clear that we as a party have NO official role in the proceedings. It sure doesn’t mean there’s not individual members who support it and will be in attendance – as I said I plan on being there.
Nationally this movement has attracted a number of heavy hitters. This update comes from a press release I got a few days ago from the Don’tGo Movement, a relatively new grassroots group:
The Tax Day Tea Parties are being held across the country on April 15th to protest the unprecedented wasteful spending by the Obama Administration and certain members in Congress.
(DGM) National Communications Director Juliana Johnson says, “As we get closer and closer to the Tea Party date we continue to grow stronger. We have over 300 cities planning Tea Parties with that number growing every day. If this doesn’t show that Americans are displeased that (sic) I don’t know what will.”
The Tax Day Tea Parties will be occuring in over 300 cities and have an expected turnout of over 150,000 people. The groups sponsoring the Tea Parties are Smart Girl Politics, the DontGo Movement, and Top Conservatives on Twitter. They have the endorsement of Newt Gingrich, Michelle Malkin, Dana Loesch, and numerous other groups.
In truth, the release was to announce that Sean Hannity had promised to cover the Atlanta protest live on his FOX News show that night. Obviously that will make for a spirited affair, and hopefully the Salisbury version will also bring out the local media too. By the way, I don’t believe any of these sponsoring groups is over one year old – all are very recent creations spawned by the monster that is online social networking.
While the long-range forecast is for a cool and showery April 15th, we are talking about Delmarva here. (They’re also predicting a sunny April 16th for the Shorebirds’ home opener – yeah right!) Either way, we can’t let a little rain deter us from making our feelings known.
It also will make for a good photo-op as tea mixes with the rain and flows toward the Wicomico River. Make sure to be there and watch it run.
And now for something not quite completely different…
I was shopping in Staples today and was recognized by an employee who commented about my recent appearance at the county’s budget meeting. This man suggested I should run for office simply because I thought outside the box on the issue of government spending.
For the longest time, I’ve said that I have no plans to run for higher office. There are two simple reasons why: one is that I absolutely loathe the idea of having to fundraise and have people expect me to be beholden to them because they gave me money, and the second reason is not wanting people to call me expecting to have some government service provided for them.
Oddly enough I now find myself in a profession which would require something similar to the latter; however, they are clients through their own free will and expect resolution to an issue that’s limited to what’s spelled out in their policies. It’s much different in the political world because there are people who want their representatives to solve problems they have with that which they feel entitled to from the government for them.
If I were elected to a representative body, my approach would be simply to concentrate on that which is presented to me to vote on, and vote in a manner reflecting my beliefs that government which governs least governs best and that money is best left in the pockets of those who earn it – hence my concern with the budget and, by extension, Rick Pollitt failing to figure out that the $12 million he felt shorted on over the last three years because our county has a revenue cap was actually $12 million that citizens of Wicomico County was able to use to improve their own lives in whichever way they saw fit. Obviously that was what struck a chord with the gentleman working at Staples today.
Honestly I doubt there’s really much of a movement to draft me into higher elective office, but then again I don’t know if Rick Santelli ever thought his off the cuff remarks would be extended to the length they were either.
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