Attended the Starkville/Columbus Tea Party Town Meeting Saturday (as a paid professional taping it) and came away with a few impressions.
Big turnout for an event held the Saturday before Christmas. Both newspapers reported 400, but my estimate was closer to 500-525 in attendance. It was a mixture of middle class and blue collar from across the area, mostly an over 40 crowd.
It was pretty well organized for a first time event. It started on time, had enough chairs and ended when it should have. (The new Parks/Rec building is a great facility.)
The speakers were smooth and well received. They hammered on all the Tea party points- spending, health care, common sense leadership. While it appeared to be a mostly Republican crowd, I did see a few people who didn’t vote for McCain there.
It stuck me that this is a group of people that has been mostly quiet politically through their lives and feel unrepresented in Washington, regardless of who is in power. There seemed to be frustration with current Republican and Democrat leadership.
Will it last? Can they field a viable candidate locally or nationally? Will they criticize Republicans as well as Democrats? How will the Republicans react to part of their perceived base drifting away?
For their viewpoints, here are the stories from the SDN and Dispatch this weekend.
“Pelosi and Reid are over thar in Copenhagen in all that ice an’ stuff and they gon’ tell us thar’s global warming!”
Well, I’m wondering if my health insurance covers laughter-induced hernias. This little liberal had a knee-slappin’ good time… once I realized I wasn’t about to be burned at the stake.
P.S. Bravo on making it a family event. I’m sure the children present wouldn’t dare associate parental approval and affection with a particularly divisive ideology.
While not there and I intend on reading the Starkville Daily and CD reports, I would tend to agree with StarkvilleNow that this group has not been vocal and are quite shocked at the direction our country is going.
I am scared to death of the liberal agenda. Health care is a HUGE part of their agenda and I don’t understand it at all. Why do we need legislation for a program already in place to help those in need?
Switching to the global warming summit – you do have to love that all of those attending the summit couldn’t get there on public transportation (the buses were empty but limos were brought in for the event – over 1200 limos).
Do as I say, not as I do. Same with many of those that Obama appointed this past year – they didn’t pay taxes or cheated on taxes. How can federal government PAY for things when those responsible for legislation aren’t putting in their two pennies too?
My statements don’t mean that I don’t care about others. Do liberals believe that conservatives don’t care about others? I don’t want to spend half of my year paying for the social agenda of liberals. Conservatives helps others plenty – I don’t want the government defining who I help out, however. We also need to watch out for the government not allowing donations to 503c entities – the IRS wants to limit even more the tax deducations to 503c groups! Ack! Why? Oh that’s right – the government wants to be the one who determines “who is in need”.
I was there and agree with most of the Tea Party principles. However, I was not impressed with the event. There was a lot of rhetoric and fluff but little substance. Next time…they should arm the people with facts and specific ways in which they can help. Sitting in a nice, but poorly built facility, isn’t going to solve anything.
Do you people not see the irony (if not brazen hypocrisy) of protesting your level of taxation inside a publicly-owned, taxpayer-finances facility? You’re all idiots.
It’s not irony, it’s genius. The Tea Party movement isn’t against taxation, but “excessive government spending and taxation.” Seems the local Tea Party movement is saying they like to benefit from the taxes they pay. Benefitting from taxes isn’t hypocrisy, it’s sincerity. It’s genius.
Bravo Daniel. Bravo.
Well taxation and taxation for excessive and wasteful government spending are two different things. I protest the second. But, I also applaud the two-percent tax in Starkville because it directly funds local projects rather than more pork in federal bills. Not-so-bravo Mr. Melder, not-so-bravo.
Ah! I agree, taxation for the government spending that we are currently seeing at the federal level is a bit on the excessive side. No one on this forum (I may be wrong) would spend their way out of debt with their personal checkbooks, nor should we do our national debt the same way. The ramifications will be extraordinary.