Tea party advice on visiting our fair city

[Anonymous]

Worse than I thought... actually, I take that back... just as bad as I thought.

Wow.

http://dcist.com/2010/08/welcome_to_dc_tea_party.php

[Anonymous]

Is this for real?

[Anonymous]

Yes, yes it is.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/23/glenn-beck-rally-attendee_n_691578.html

[Anonymous]

If you read Glenn Beck's page none of this is mentioned there. He is the one putting this together and he isn't telling anyone to visit certain neighborhoods. It has to be splinter groups.
http://www.glennbeck.com/828/

Oh, wait, Huffinton Post says it all in the first paragraph.
"A blogger at Maine Refounders has taken it upon himself to offer repost a DC visitors guide to anyone coming to the Rally For Glenn Beck's "

Oh, and no, I am not a member of the tea party.

[Anonymous]

If mainstream Muslims are required to apologize for the actions of their extremist coreligionists, so too should mainstream Tea Partiers.

The original post was some random guy who appears to be from the Maine Tea Party and was quoting a friend who lives in DC.

http://paintmainered.ning.com/profiles/blogs/so-you-are-coming-to-the-828

As far as I can tell, this site is genuine. The blogger who made this post, however, appears to have no other blog posts.

However, Bruce Majors is a major Internet Fighter for Freedom.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/t/r/trollalert/2010/03/troll-alert-bruce-majors-nasty.php

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/08/25/bruce-majors-profile/

I notice he does have several homes listed near the Yellow and Green Lines, though.

[Anonymous]

I'm going to the rally this weekend. It's going to be great!

[Anonymous]

Can you explain to me what the point of this rally is?

[Anonymous]

It's to restore the country to an idealized past when the Constitution was really followed.

OTOH, I suspect many attendees will be of the "Get the government out of my Medicare" variety.

i.e. only conservative/libertarian when it comes to programs that benefit other people.

We can have an honest discussion about the size and role of the federal government. I suspect, however, the current crop of Republicans, who are the same individuals who led Congress between 2001 and 2006, aren't all that serious about reducing the size of the federal government.

[Anonymous]

I went to observe the last one and was struck by the number of signs accusing Barack ("here Wall Street, have some more money") Obama of being a socialist/communist. Given that 1 out of 5 thinks he's a Muslim I have been looking forward to seeing lots of those signs but apparently there aren't supposed to be any signs supposedly out of respect for our service people. Which is a nice touch I grant you but one has to wonder whether it's also because the signs were so embarrassing at the last rally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to observe the last one and was struck by the number of signs accusing Barack ("here Wall Street, have some more money") Obama of being a socialist/communist. Given that 1 out of 5 thinks he's a Muslim I have been looking forward to seeing lots of those signs but apparently there aren't supposed to be any signs supposedly out of respect for our service people. Which is a nice touch I grant you but one has to wonder whether it's also because the signs were so embarrassing at the last rally.

They don't want signs because some people put up really objectionable and ignorant things on them. It is a challenge that movements attract a certain number of wackos, and there is little that movement leaders can do about it. Conservatives have always derided liberal protest for this reason. Now they understand how it happens. You want a rally about small government, and suddenly some guy shows up with a poster that says Obama = Muslim Terrorist, and some other guy has some Black Conspiracy thing going on, and another has a God Hates F-gs poster. What do you do? It drives movement leaders nuts. Well back 20 years ago, I'd go to a Central American Solidarity rally, and suddenly I'm seeing posters about pro-choice, or unionizing farm workers in America or equal pay for women.

I think the legitimate question is to what extent the views of these sign holders represents a significant sentiment behind the tea party movement. The thing about a movement is that there is no document to define it, so really what matters is how many members believe it is part of the cause. It drives movement leaders crazy, but it is part of the nature of movements. I suspect they ould like to have a real political party, which has its own way of controlling this. But it is nearly impossible to launch a party, given our electoral system.

[Anonymous]

I should add that I did not get upset about things like equal pay for women. My issue is that I would go to a rally about a particular political issue, and suddenly it's widened to every liberal cause under the sun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I should add that I did not get upset about things like equal pay for women. My issue is that I would go to a rally about a particular political issue, and suddenly it's widened to every liberal cause under the sun.

Yup. But most of those "ideological parasites" aren't even particularly "liberal". Nothing liberal about ANSWER... Or the Free Mumia morons.