Dear readership,
Your humble hostess captured this video of a Tea Party Express rally on April 27, 2012 in Brecksville, Ohio--a predominately white upper middle class suburb of Cleveland. The rally was scheduled for 5-6:30 p.m. I arrived at about 5:15. Although I mixed it up a bit to keep things lively, the footage is more or less chronological and includes what I think is a fair representation of the event. Things wrapped up a little before six.
Enjoy.
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27 comments:
I came for the shame, but I stayed for the sadness. That was the schadenfruediest.
the Republican guy
twinkly
I loved that video so much, Erin. I almost shed a tear. So much.
Pure beauty.
Did you notice how threatening they were? Did you see the blatant racism on display? Did you notice the mess they left? Looks like Brecksville has nothing to fear from the Teaparty.
Bill, I don't think anyone has much to fear from the Tea Party.
The mood on that bus afterward must have been similar to that of a minor-league baseball team that just got shutout 11-0.
Or, if prayers are answered, the mood of a certain reelection campaign, headquartered in Chicago, on November 7, 2012
I think they need a new DJ. I'd hung with the Sousa Marches. Help 'em get up the hill to the shining city.
RJ
P.S. 10 bucks says that woman speaker couldn't find China, India or Greece on a map.
P.P.S. Where was the mini?
How many of those people realize that the Ryan/Romney budget means they'll have to pay cash money out of their pockets for Mom or Dad's Scooteraround chair? That yes, the Medicaid that pays for Grandma's assisted living is, in fact, Government Spending?
MR
That is sad. But on the bright side, no one was trashing the place -- notice the lack of litter and compare to the "occupy" sites. No one is shitting on a cop car. Maybe they emptied their Depends on the hood later?
It cracks me up that they try to flame FB posters by saying "liberals are becoming extinct"... ummm... isn't there a term for that sort of "whatever is wrong with me/us, I will accuse someone else of"? I think it's called "displacement". Thanks for stomaching being near these weirdos for as long as you did. :-)
I love that the nicest thing anyone can say about this is that the crowd was polite.
Um, conservative contingent? THEY WERE ONLY THERE FOR AN HOUR.
The saddest part of the event was that it absolutely lacked any heart. One of the roadies told me that the kick-off event in PA drew a crowd of "about a hundred, maybe a hundred fifty." I counted about 35 at this event, and that included the presenters.
This was clearly bankrolled by some unseen entity--maybe the "Our Country Deserves Better" PAC referenced at the bottom of the Tea Party Express webpage. Perhaps they bought those shiny busses. Whatever the case, the grass-roots behind this movement are clearly dead. And if that needed further underscoring, the speaker, Amy Kremer, kept emphatically telling the crowd, "We're not dead." It was almost as bad as when Christine O'Donnell had to announce on television that she wasn't a witch.
Make no mistake, there was just no soul here. And this was the first day of the tour. Will it gain momentum or just keep petering out?
Who knows. I only recorded what I saw peeps. You can read more coverage here or here. Funny thing about that second link, though. The writer references Howard Kaloogian as if he spoke at the rally. He did not.
If The Boston Tea Party were held today the Tea Party Express supporters would criticize them for littering up the harbor.
Dummies.
RJ
If the Boston Tea Party were held today the Town Crier, EOB, would humiliate them by giving reqular reports of their small numbers and fecklessness and pointing out their silly patriotism.
I'd love to have one of those buses. Would be neat to travel around the country in one with the wife and maybe a few friends.
Al
TRAG
@ Erin-The turn-out that you saw is indicative of the reason political observers referred to the Tea Party (so-called) as an 'AstroTurf' movement and not a grass-roots movement. The whole concept was bankrolled by groups like the Koch brother's 'Americans For Prosperity'
PAC.
Statistics have shown that, contrary to the initial belief in the press and media that individuals self-identifying as Tea Party members were neophytes and newly energized members of the electorate, they were in fact merely long-time Republicans of a particularly "conservative" (read-tin-foil hat) bent.
MR
The word zero comes to mind here.
The nice thing is that they are participating in the dialog. However misguided they may be they have some respect for the system.
When the Tea Party first emerged, I thought (and hoped) it was a new populist movement that, despite their inital conservatism, could be converted to progressivism. However, as MR pointed out, statsitics proved that most of these folks were long-time members of the GOP. Very few were independents. Still, you'd think that a lot of REPUBLICANS at least would show up for that rally. That's probably why Brecksville was chosen in the first place. So what went wrong? My guess is the spigot got turned off. When it suited their purposes, such as right after Obama's inaugeration, those Republicans with deep pockets threw a lot of money at the Tea Partiers. Were able to get the word out when a rally was going to be held. Were able to provide free transportation to get people to those rallies. Unfortunaley, the Tea Party then developed a mind of its own, began voting for people like Christine O'Donnel in primary elections (only to see them lose in the general), and wreaked havoc in the normally smooth Republican presidential nominating process. When the deep pockets saw the Frankenstein monster they created, they turned off the electrodes.
That said, I wouldn't be surpised if they flick the switch right back on once Romney is safely nominated, and the general election is under way. So I don't think we've seen the last of the Tea Party. Now, I hope I'm wrong about that, as I very much want Obama elected to a second term. In fact, I find myself wanting it even more than I did the first term. But it won't happen if the opposition is taken too lightly.
Kirk,
You are correct in your assumption that the majority of Tea Partiers were members of the GOP; members who were fed up with the RINOs and the general direction things have been heading for a number of years. What went wrong is, it's still the same old shit, the GOP still controls the purse strings. If you aren't a party loyalist you get no support.
I too was originally optimistic that the TP could attract Independents and people who think for themselves and at first, it did. But the fractiousness, infighting and degradation by the GOP more or less rendered it moot.
The great concern from both the Democrats and the Republicans was that it would morph into a legitimate third party that would upset their little apple cart and both parties overtly and covertly did what they could to grind it down. Human nature being what it is, people shrugged their shoulders and said WTF. Not unlike the occupiers going home for the winter 'cause they got cold.
One thing I will say, I don't believe there were any buses offering free transportation to people just to fill a rally. The Tea Partiers I knew can afford to transport themselves without any freebie incentive.
Alphadog--
I read in various news accounts of the 2009 Tea Party rallies that free bus rides were being offered. Anyway, I don't see anything wrong with it. Same thing goes on with liberal-leaning rallies, too. My only point is such rallies cost money, especially if you're aiming for news coverage. The rally Erin covered (as a "citizen journalist"?) seemed like a low- rent affair. I just now read the Plain Dealer account of it. The article states the the rally was apparently scheduled on very short notice, and that the Tea Party activists were not "professional event planners". Fair enough, except that those non-professional event planners seemed to do a good enough job getting large groups of people together in 2009. Assuming, of course, these were same bunch of Tea Party activists in charge of both events. You may be right that disillusionment accounts for the low turnout--I would PREFER that, actually--it's just hard for me to believe that money, or the lack thereof, doesn't have something to do with it.
"same thing goes on with liberal-leaning rallies, too."
A redundency. Arrrggghhh!
Alph, Kirk, great comments I enjoyed reading them.
Kirk, as far as 'low-rent' is concerned, somebody paid for those buses at a pretty hefty rate-I am not conversant enough to hazard a guess on their cost-$150K? $200K? Anybody knows better lemme know.
Yeah, a lot of the large-scale events especially those revolving around the PPACA were heavily orchestrated...Koch Industries is the primary donor to 'Americans For Prosperity', and AFP then dispensed support to the 'astro-turf' groups.
In the context of the dog whistles some tea partiers were responsive to, if you're interested I urge you to go to the New Republic, blogger Jonathon Chait, "No, the Tea Party isn't Racist. Yes the Tea Party is racial", I believe 3//3/11. There is a strong undercurrent of identity politics and resentment politics at work with people who identify as Tea Partiers.
MR
Good GAWD. Here comes a long-winded and poorly organized rant.
1. The whole country wants a social liberal and fiscal conservative running the joint, but we'll never get it.
2. The Tea Party Express totally bunged this event from the get go. They listed it in Youngstown, Cleveland and Brecksville, and then had trouble getting permission from Brecksville city officials. To me, this is beside the point, if people were interested in the movement, they would have found the rally.
3. Yes, there is $$ in the busses, but not in the staff. And there is not sufficient interest from the general public to get a real "grass roots" promotion of the tour going.
4. As indicated by the lack of coverage, it seems pretty clear to me that the Tea Party Express events in places such as Corydon or Madison were dismal.
5. I never believed anything I heard out of the Tea Party. They were nonexistent under Bush, couldn't have cared less about non-funded unnecessary wars and The Patriot Act, then came out of the woodwork when Obama was elected, all indignant about spending and the Constituion. Like I tell my kid, a Tea Bagger is someone who thinks Obama is going to take all their stuff and give it to poor black people.
Unlike the Sad Teaparty folks, these demonstrators have a clear message
Hey Mom. What's an Occupier?
Like I tell my wife, a Tea Bagger is someone who likes that stuff called Lipton's or Tetley as opposed to looseleaf tea. Julie is definitely not a Tea Bagger, then.
Al
TRAG
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