Teabag Post Mortem

It is very important that we do not lose sight of the results of the April 15th tea parties.

Here is an excellent list
of the attendance around the country. It is far too long to copy here in total, but here are some samples:

"Dozens Turn Out for Tax Day Tea Party - San Diego - Dozens
Hundreds of Tea Party activists gather at Legislature - Las Vegas - Hundreds
Handful of Tea Party Patriots Show Up to Protest on Tax Day in Pasadena & Burbank -
Oklahoma Capitol tea party draws smaller crowd this year - Oklahoma City, OK - 1,200
Tax day brings out tea party protests - Charlotte, NC - 1,000
Tea Party rally draws crowd to Bristol's Cumberland Square Park on tax day - Bristol, VA - 200
Tax Day Tea Party Rally in Cumming - Cumming GA - 300
OC Tea Party rallies roil with discontent - Orange County, Ca - 300
Tea Party rally stirs local support - Muskingum, IA - 200
Tax Day Tea Party - Lewis, DE - 200+
Taxes forefront at local Tea Party rally - Chillicothe, OH - about 200
Tea Party protestors chant for lower taxes at statehouse - Atlantic City, NJ - 200
Grayson County Tea Party - Grayson Co, OK 100+
Tax Day Tea Parties Held Around North Central West Virginia - 100+"

Two hundred...three hundred...dozens. This is absolutely pathetic, particularly considering the endless free publicity these people got from the mainstream media, and the support of massively funded Republican astroturf organizations.

Even the right wing blogs are trying as hard as they can to erase the whole thing from memory. Instead of their usual dishonest boasting about the massive crowds that they claimed attended these rallies, they have focused almost exclusively on the liberal thugs which they hallucinated up before the rallies. Here's a small sample:

Bob Owens, Pajamas Media: "as we noted in Thursday’s continuous coverage, the radical leftists of the “Crash the Tea Party” movement simply failed to materialize at the estimated 2,000 Tax Day tea party protests."

They failed to materialize because they never existed. But better to focus on that than on the real story: The teabaggers largely failed to materialize too.

Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit: "Republican Scott Brown Raps Obama For Personal Attacks on Tea Party Protesters"

Of course, it's perfectly okay for them to call him a communist Muslim illegal immigrant who is deliberately trying to destroy the country.

Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit: "BREAKING: Violent Tea Party Infiltrator Identified – Is Secretary of St. Charles County Dem Committee"

Violent in this case meaning that he shouted something during one of the speeches. That's as violent as these liberal thugs managed to get. But I guess that just proves what a bunch of gay pansies they are.

I don't believe we can allow everyone to forget what a miserable excuse for a popular movement these people have turned out to be. They were never anything but a bought and paid for dumb show, around which Republican propagandists could build their fantasy that there is a huge movement of people in the country who want nothing but what is good for the rich. Yes, by spending $600 million dollars, the Republicans and the insurance companies made many people hate "Obamacare." The only thing they didn't do was make the people hate what is actually in the bill, when they are told the truth about it. That, they support overwhelmingly.

There is simply no group in the country that supports the violent, racist, greedy agenda of the teabaggers, except the 15% of dimwits who have swallowed the most blatant Republican lies since the time of Nixon. These people will never face reality, they will never change, and there is not one second when they will concern themselves with what the rest of us consider to be morality. It is time that the rest of us turn our backs, and forget about them.

Comments

50 people showed up across the river from me in Hannibal Mo. The newspaper had a picture of an older guy shouting and looking angry.

The one I went to a year before had 2,000 people but the sponsor had free beer and entertainment. I got loaded.
Green Eagle said…
Thanks for the report. I may be wrong, but I don't think we can afford at this point to allow them to claim that they speak for a large number of people.
Derek said…
"Two hundred...three hundred...dozens. This is absolutely pathetic, particularly considering the endless free publicity these people got from the mainstream media, and the support of massively funded Republican astroturf organizations.
"

Every tea party I have been to has been grassroots. They have been funded mostly in part by private donors and were planned entirely by my friends. Every liberal rally I have ever seen has been put on entirely by unions or liberal 501c4/523s. And the best they can do is get 100 people out, most of whom are paid to be there. As much as you would like to belittle the movement, they still are viewed favorably by the general public. They also are relatively average in every demographic: age, sex, income, education, race, etc (check gallup more often if you disagree. Or the NYT).
Green Eagle said…
Derek, you forget that I was very politically active during the Vietnam era. I know what a real movement looks like and feels like, and these phony rallies are not it. I've felt the electricity in the air from the thousands of people who would materialize almost anywhere in the country, with no help from Fox news and Dick Armey. It was a thrilling sensation, and there is absolutely none of that at the tea parties.

The last anti-Iraq demonstration in Washington got 400,000 people, with no free promotion in the press, and virtually no coverage. Liberal immigration rallies have drawn hundreds of thousands of people. The tea parties are a pathetic sham.
Derek said…
"I've felt the electricity in the air from the thousands of people who would materialize almost anywhere in the country, with no help from Fox news and Dick Armey."

So basically a handful of tea parties this year, most of the ones from last year. We had 8000 last year, and it was planned by my friend who was a college freshman. To see the movement, look at the polls. Obama's numbers are crap, as are Congress', and government distrust is at an all time high.

You might be comparing apples an oranges, as they are two different movements. The antiwar protests often were loud, in your face, and sometimes even turned violent. The tea parties are civil and carry out their demonstrations with permits and single speakers as opposed to thousands yelling and blocking streets. This movement isn't nearly as young as the antiwar protest either, it is more diverse with participants from every age group, sex, race, income, and education level.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_the_Iraq_War

"The last anti-Iraq demonstration in Washington got 400,000 people"

Which one are you referencing? Ever antiwar protest I have seen has in part been sponsored by some form of PAC, if not entirely made by a PAC or union. At least the tea parties are almost entirely grassroots.

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