Austin TEA Party Report
I joined over 1500 people who assembled peaceably at a noon-time TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party rally in downtown Austin today, April 15th. It was a great and boisterous crowd, with awesome patriotic flags and pro-liberty signs and a dozen or so good speeches from grassroots activists on up to Michael Williams and Gov Rick Perry, with a theme echoed by many of the speakers - "Don't Mess with Texas".
What brought them to the rally and what brought me was we are united in opposition to overarching Big Government and the massive bailouts, stimulus spending spree and Obama's huge spending. It was expressed best in the sign - "Give me liberty, don't give me debt." We don't want the flawed and phony Keynesian theology to be used as an excuse for massive over-spending that robs us of liberty, hurtles the United States Government towards bankruptcy and hurts our long-term prosperity.
The 1500 folks I saw at Austin rally were mostly working people and a diverse group of the kind of mix you see at any Patriots rally. Ordinary working Americans, young people, students, older folks, some veterans. I saw a professor; I saw some kids. There were many handmade signs with hdiverse statements. One of them had Pelosi, Obama and Reid with Pirate Hats on. Another said “Give me liberty, dont give me debt!” Another, “TERM LIMITS”. Some other signs that had a lot more words and detail, mini-essays or pleas if you will. 
I also liked the diverse set of flags - the "Don't Tread on Me" flag, the “Come and Take It” flag (ie used at Goliad), the 1824 Mexico Republic flag, pointed out by Michele Samuelson in her speech, US flags, and of course the Texas flag, which I brought. You don't see such a patriotic outpouring in a liberal rally.
It was a diverse crowd in a political way too, albeit uniformly loathed by the liberal elites; it seemed to include all stripes of American populist, conservative, Republican, libertarian, constitionalist, freedom lover and taxpaying working stiff type of people. The common cause shared by all was a basic love of freedom and distrust with Big Government. We had Ron Paul folks in the crowd, some 'regular' Republicans, some conservative grassroots activist types (like AFP Texas' Peggy Venable), Libertarian Party speaker was followed by some Young Republican, followed by a YCT speaker, and then later Gov Rick Perry spoke. In these Tea Parties, we see the ragtag army of the center-right coalition that pays for the Government and who have scattered and been divided for the past 4-8 years. Whether they will get together in a politically effective way remains to be seen, but for today the common cause of rallying to say we are "Taxed Enough Already" made for a great rally on a fine April day.
The Democrats and liberals: Go ahead and ignore the Tea Parties. MSNBC: Go ahead and mock them, showing your own ignorance and willingness to distort news; keep your viewers ignorant. Gandhi had a quote about what happens when first they ignore you, so - be complacent. It will make it easier to defeat you later.
This is what a rally in San Fransisco had as a banner:
As for Obama's attempt to co-opt the Tea Parties today with talk of tax cuts for people (never mind that no a single dollar of his trillion dollar stimulus spending goes to tax rate reduction), he's forgetting something: Who will PAY for the extra spending? Me, or my kids? Michael Williams expressed it right when he said that deficit spending was a deferred tax. We KNOW we will pay for the spending sooner or later - either in higher taxes directly or the debasement of our currency. So Obama and the Democrats fool nobody in their free-lunch approach to their massive $16 trillion spending plan. IT'S THE SPENDING STUPID.
This was one of many rallies held across Texas - 1400 people came out in Tyler - 1400 protesters, Longview - 1500 protesters, 500 people in Belton, 1000 in Fort Worth...
500 in Corpus Christi, 
Rallies held also in Jacksonville, Nacogdoches, Houston, Dallas, and dozens of other cities and towns across the state, as part of hundreds of rallies with hundreds of thousands of people total across the nation.
Some pictures from rally of thousands at the Alamo in San Antonio.
(Pictures from San Antonio rally.)
UPDATE: More pictures from Tea Party Rallies across the nation
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3 comments:
Great report!
I heard last night that there were 8000 people at the rally in Waco!
On another blog, a reply to a liberal critic:
"I hate to judge this exercise in freedom of speech by the signs in this coverage but it's hard not to be disturbed by the underlying current of racism."
I hate to judge this exercise in freedom of speech but it's hard not to be disturbed by the ongoing attempts by liberals to see every criticism of Obama or his left-liberal policies as driven by racism, or their attempt to paint a prejudicial broad brush on the basis of a few signs or comments that could be taken the wrong way. It's the Left's version of McCarthyism - guilt by association.
I heard a fine African-American at my rally. He name is Michael Williams. You should hear what he had to say.
There was a diverse crowd of all ethnic and socio-economic levels - most were ordinary middle-class and working people, mostly just concerned about a Government that seems to be running amok spending money it doesnt have on programs we dont need and people and corrupt organizations (like flailing banks and and corporate welfare recipients) who dont deserve it.
Amen! I run a small phone systems Austin-based company, and think you guys have the right idea.
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