There will be tax tea parties in various U.S. cities on April 15 to protest taxes. This looks like an opportunity to pass out Austrian economics literature and possibly influence people. At the very least, you could protest taxes. See the link for more information.
We’ll be protesting in Wilmington NC at the corner of College and Oleander 5-7pm on the 15th. It’s time to make our voices heard, to send the message that we are organizing to vote them out of office, that we will not stand for the robbing of our money, our morals, and our liberty. We have our Austrian economic and Campaign for Liberty literature ready to hand out, we hope to educate as well as motivate. Please support your local Tax Day Tea Party, if you can’t attend please at least pass the word.
“The financial problems faced by the USA cannot be solved by politicians. They can only be made worse by politicians” Bill Bonner
I just got back from the Cincinnati tea party. It was a cold, drizzly day, but we had at least 5,000 people there. It could have been much more. The march was really long, and it would have made impressive video from the air, but I didn’t see any helicopter coverage. I’ve seen many, much smaller political rallies get tons of coverage in the past, so I hope Cincinnati’s does too, but I didn’t see hardly any press.
There were very few counter-protesters, maybe 50 at most, and they tried to cause some problems by running through the crowd and into people, but a couple that actually ran into somebody got arrested. I’m willing to bet that the counter protesters get at least as much coverage as the main protest.
I was very disappointed in the lack of black people. I only saw a couple of black protesters, but most of the counter-protesters were black. I’m sure any coverage will try to minimize the parties by focusing on race.
The three speakers sucked in general and talked too long, but all three criticized Republicans as much as Democrats. I think that was staged though. When one speaker asked Democrats to raise their hands, I only saw 2 in the thousand or so people I could see at that time. When he asked about Republicans, about half that I could see raised their hands. This guy was hinting pretty heavily that the group should vote Libertarian, but he never said the word libertarian.
The thing I liked least of all was the thousands of people reciting the pledge of allegiance like good little socialists. It makes my skin crawl when I see that. The pledge of allegiance sounds like a Nazi or Soviet loyalty oath to me, and that’s because it was designed by a socialist to promote the socialist movement in the US. Yuk!
But all in all, it was a pretty well organized and executed event.
Dayton’s is from 6 to 8 this evening.
I recently got home from the Dayton tea party. Not surprisingly, it had much in common with the Cincinnati tea party. The signs at both were great. Assuming I was right about 5,000 in Cincinnati (somebody told me that was in the middle of numerous estimates), the Dayton tea party had about 3,500 people. It was by far the most crowded I’ve seen Courthouse Square in three years excepting the Christmas tree lighting, which is nuts. Also the crowd in Dayton seemed more energetic, active and independent, and the speakers were better and shorter. That makes sense to me knowing the character of both Dayton and Cincinnati.
One interesting point was Dayton’s crowd was full of FairTax people. I assume that’s because Boortz is on the air in Dayton but not Cincinnati. I saw only one FairTax sign in Cincinnati in the thousand or so people I was immersed in. I saw at least 30 FairTax signs in Dayton in the same thousand or so people.
Apparently no counter-protesters showed up in Dayton. I didn’t see one. Not one person I talked to after the event even saw one.
I did see several, not a bunch, black people protesting with us in Dayton. The crowd could easily be painted white by the media because most protesters were white, but unlike in Cincinnati, that would be untrue. There were enough black protesters in Dayton to break that stereotype, imo.
All that said, the Dayton event was after work while Cincinnati’s was in the middle of lunch, so comparing them is like comparing apples to oranges.
I wish I had taken a camera. 20-20 hindsight is worth what you pay for it.
Personally, I see the glass half full, but more I see it half empty. First, I’m not a ra-ra guy. I came to my conclusions about freedom through personal analysis and reason. Nobody convinced me to be a libertarian. I never attended a rally. I never had a libertarian role model. I never read about political theory including libertarianism. I became a libertarian through personal reflection, observation, experience and reason before I ever knew that libertarian thought or libertarians existed.
So to me, these tea parties are passe. I’m glad to see many people have caught a whiff of the love of freedom I’ve been espousing since 1988. But these people don’t feel it like I do. Despite all the rhetoric of limited government transcending political affiliation I heard today, this movement seems more a political convenience to most of the people I saw. Even my girlfriend was moved. For a couple hours. I doubt it will last to the 2010 elections, let alone over the long haul. Anybody who needs cheerleaders to incite them to care about freedom isn’t a freedom lover.
On the other hand, I’m ecstatic to see people who have for voted for big, bad government their entire lives suddenly rejecting it. I’ve written extensively in my blog about the need for conservatives to reject the Bush/Republican/big government policies of the past. I heard exactly that today. These tea partiers threw Bush and Republicans under the bus where they deserved to be for the last 12 years as quickly as they threw Obama and Democrats. That’s an indisputably positive development.
But as I sat in a downtown Dayton bar tonight and talked to a senior local Republican party machine official, he promised me that the local and national party would stand by my Republican representative Turner in 2010 despite his running just to the right of Nancy Pelosi. He promised me, while talking excitedly about change and reform and grassroots efforts, that nothing would change here. It was phenomenally disheartening because I can see every local Republican organization in America saying, “yay for change in all the other organizations except ours.”
So as excited as I am by the people today, I fully expect this movement to die a grotesque death on the vine come primary and election time and devolve into lesser of two evils politics as usual.
Once I heard the protests were being co opted, my interest in joining largely declined, especially since the party I would’ve gone to would’ve been in D.C.
However, the weather was absolutely miserable today (cold, rainy & breezy), & I had gotten rid of old winter clothes ahead of time for summer, so I phoned it in anyway.
I feel a bit bad, but I think I can make up for it with a summer in NH at some point.
What do you mean by co-opted? Nobody tried to co-opt me. I’m jealous.
I meant various teaparties in various cities being hijacked by the Republicans, Neo-Cons, etc. via their own turnout’s activity. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of it, it;s been pretty widespread on the internets by now.
a general link for a bit of an overview: http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2009/04/09/telling-tea-party-truth/
Sadly, already I’m seeing the other idiots (Democrats) buying into the false rhetoric of Republicans & Neo-Cons, are now more or less decrying the Tea Party protests as more or less right-wing extremist activity.
It’s just very annoying that a good idea is being soured by partisan hacks, although to my knowledge, not every protest has been or is being hijacked. I will do my part & try to clear up any disinfo I encounter offline, though.
I knew my tea parties were going to be mostly Republicans. That didn’t deter me, and as I pointed out, I was right.
But if Republicans are suddenly allies in the interest of freedom, however temporarily, that’s a great thing, imo.
But as I’ve reflected more since I first posted, I’m moving further toward the glass being mostly empty. I mentioned I wasn’t a ra-ra guy, and the more I think about both rallies, the more I think the ra-ra stuff is just the same old partisanship as ever. It’s the Buckeyes versus the Wolverines.
It’s easy to get caught up in rhetoric for a time and become hopeful, which drove me to see the half full glass for a short while, but when the rhetoric fades the substance shines through, words are meaningless and emotion-filled rallies are to incite the faithful, not to inspire reason. One comment that stands out was how Democrats had won in 2008 with better organization and more energy. The obvious implication was these tea parties were designed to promote a better conservative organization and conservative energy.
Still, temporary allies in the cause of freedom are better than no allies at all, and I’m happy I went, promoted the cause, and talked to a number of conservatives about the failures of conservatives in the last 20 years while promoting a libertarian point of view. I wish more libertarians had done the same. If nothing else, my girlfiend will be more receptive to voting for limited government in 2010. They say change begins at home. 
I felt the same way, and didn’t go to the DC gatherings in part for the same reason! I actually replied that I “wasn’t very interested because it seemed run by Republicans”, to one of the hardcore Democrats that I work with who asked about it (with a very “political” smirk asking the question, this was another indication that it was being co opted). I’m on a personal mission to see if I can convert some devoted economic authoritarians into defenders of freedom, but that’s impossible if I lose credibility by looking partisan, hah. Is that wrong? heh
It’s definitely challenging getting Democrats to be open minded about government destruction of economic freedom. There are just too many popular fallacies drilled into people’s minds. I think it may be even harder to get them to come to their senses on this than getting Republicans to embrace consistency in social and foreign freedom.
I’d say that hiding from opportunities to promote freedom is a mistake. Today was an unusual (unique?) opportunity when conservatives were promoting freedom themselves. I can’t think of another opportunity in my politically aware lifetime in which conservatives were so open to the idea of freedom. Now is the time - today was the time - to make hay, imo.
It’s not all about logical fallacies; this would assume far too much logic, in the first place. A lot of it is psychological (and into the realm of the emotional): The Democrats & Republicans just get too much of a rush from being part of their own Crowds to think beyond their own mystical assortments of arrogance (of their position), & ignorance (of other’s positions).
They are also highly prone to political amnesia, but I’ve found the best way to tackle political amnesia is not to enable it in conversation, which would probably mean dropping niceties, dancing around subjects, & being a bit “rude” (this is relative to how impenetrable their political bubble is). For example, when some leftists friends I know began to throw absurd questions regarding economics of Bush somehow being libertarian (yea, I laughed too), I threw it right back at them:
“So, hows the economy going under Obama? He’s got some pretty trusty people who worked on the inside with some of these companies being bailed-out, so obviously, we won’t get screwed.” (Populist appeal is actually very effective against Democrats, I find)
or
"Laugh all you want at the Republicans for supporting Bush, but you guys voted for the same type of candidate with Obama. By the time June roles around, you’ll wonder who the hell is this guy who is: pro- ACTA treaty, pro- RIAA, pro-War (Afganistan, Pakistan, & maybe Somalia if he needs to make people think “Change” is coming by murdering a conflicted territory over some spare pirated DVD’s sales), pro-wiretapping (but it’s the democrat version, so this is cool, right?), etc. etc.
Basically, he’s already done a complete 180 & then some from his campaign, and you guys are scratching your heads, completly missing the difference between the “ought” of the campaign trail, and the “is” of reality brought on by the aqquistion of political power. Democrats & Republicans? You guys deserve each other"
(an expanded version, I admit, but no less startling in conversation).
Solid Gold. That is how you talk to partisans effectively.
I went to the one in my city. It was a pretty good turnout… The numbers weren’t in the thousands, but you have to remember that the number of people there isn’t necessarily the number of people who hold those ideals. Some people simply couldn’t make it. My dad, for instance, is a CPA, and was at work literally all day.
At the tea party I attended, it was pretty strongly emphasized over and over that it was not a republican meeting and it was not a democratic meeting, it was an American meeting.
When democrats, republicans, and picklicans (pick any other party and place here) start showing up at these kinds of events where “American” tones blast any partisan silliness, then I’ll think this is getting serious. Other than that when’s the next circus coming to town? gotta keep their hopes up with good ole’ fashion amusement… merry-go-round anybody [:P]
I attended the Dayton one, and I can confirm it seemed co-opted. Contrary to the earlier poster who also attended the Dayton tea party, in my mind the ‘fair’ taxers dominated.
Then I read in the paper today that one of the speakers at a tea party in the South was Sean Hannity. Co-Opted? Yup.
Saw it on TV. Looked like republicans trying to reignite interest in the boring “FairTax” while using the crowd as an excuse to talk about other neocon crap.
Thats scary. Republicans organizing protests, to support a FairTax. So now (suprise suprise), conservatives will march in the streets begging the government to steal their money.
“Now is the time - today was the time- to make hay…”
The line has been drawn. It is time for The Fight. We fight the Socialist now on all fronts as hard as we can or we loose; we loose it all. It is now the time our forefathers warned us of. Drop the squabbling over political parties, get out there and fight. Fight any way you can. The only way this fight will be won is to go out to places and events where your voice is different and MAKE IT HEARD, not stand back and criticize.
We will never be free of two party politics by not engaging …
NOW IS THE TIME TO BE HEARD!
I hope you’re not being exclusive here. For one, I’m engaged. What’s an individual such as me have to do with the two parties? Isn’t it funny how they’re called “parties”… is it byob?
I understand the opposition to Fairtax, but we have to approach change realistically. Fairtax or even a flat tax would probably be immensely better than the theft and waste we have going on now, and they are certainly a step in the right direction. The only way to realistically end legal theft is to do it the same way it came about–progressively (no pun intended) and in stages.
I agree. Ignoring political reality isn’t helpful. The FairTax would be a great political lever for reducing the size and scope of government because once the people experience the benefits of the FairTax versus our current tax code, they would be far more open to dramatic cuts in government. If you want to get to greatly reduced government and no taxes, you have to follow a path.