Teapartyers in Madison Hate Obama, Taxes, the Fed, and Anything With the Word "Social" (Socialists, Social Workers, Social Security, Social Contract)

Wandering around in the crowd at the Capitol last Wednesday, it was tempting to engage in parsing the signage. True to the "grassroots" nature of the event, many of the Fox News-inspired participants made their own signs rather than use the prepackaged slogans provided by the principal sponsor, Americans for Prosperity. Many called for abolishing "the Fed," which seemed to be a central concern for many. Whether that meant the Federal Reserve Bank, the federal government, or the IRS wasn't clear. Groups wanting to recall Governor Doyle, President Obama, Representative Baldwin, and Dane County Executive Falk were in evidence, and the classic theme of "Don't tread on me" resounded in flags and banners. Aside from a few local police officers, I saw not a single black face in the crowd.

While Paul Ryan, Reince Priebus, Vicki McKenna, and a list of other Republican stalwarts did their best to ignore the party's massive losses in the last April and November elections and to pretend it was a nonpartisan event, the crowd managed to rouse themselves in boos and catcalls whenever the names of the evil Democrats in office were mentioned.

But the real anger seemed to be focused on anything that contained the word "social." Many signs denounced "socialists," which seems to have replaced "liberals" and "communists" as a boogieman de jure. Higher taxes were a "socialist evil" that "kill the American dream."  Bound up with "the Fed," the national debt has become the symbol of the "social welfare" system that threatens "hard working" families, as in "Your (sic) putting my kids in debt!" The "your" referred variously to immigrants, taxers, government employees, current office holders, and, in the one-word summary that failed Dane County Executive candidate Nancy Mistele told me afterward, "entitlements." (Mistele was working the last dregs of the crowd well after most had left; apparently she thought her election was still winnable with enough turnout from outside the city of Madison.)

Two sign-carriers caught my attention enough to engage them in conversation. The first, a 24-year military veteran now living in Pardeville, was wearing a brown sweater with elephants marching across the chest and had a hand-lettered sign: "Your dog has birth papers, do you, Mr. President?" He went into an elaborate description of the typeface and design problems on Obama's birth certificate, which to him were proof that Obama was a "usurper" really born in Kenya, and that all decisions made by his administration were "null and void."  Claiming that there were four Supreme Court Justices ready to vote to overturn the election on these grounds, he blamed the liberal "drive-by media" (a  Rush listener giveaway) for ignoring this information.

The second sign carrier, from Fond du Lac, had tea bags hanging from his glasses and a sign with almost a dozen printed messages, ranging from "If your (sic) a socialist liberal politician you should be scared of me" to "the Obama nation is an Obamination," to "close the borders."  While he was telling me how term limits should apply to congressional Democrats because they hold the majority, but not Republicans, one of the many Ron Paul diehards came near. When I asked the Fond du Lac teabagger (almost got through a whole post w/o using the term) what he thought of Ron Paul, his response was a sincere: "Who is Ron Paul?"

Jesse Taylor of Pandagon had the best summary of the tea parties:

Tea Partiers are hoping that if they mimic the energy of anti-war protests and the savvy of Obama’s new media operation, that at some point an actual movement will spawn.  Getting together a bunch of pissed off middle-aged white people with no clue about how the tax system works in public areas will generate a coherent agenda designed to combat the stimulus; if it gets enough media coverage, they will DOMINATE THE AGENDA.

It’s like taping a horn to a horse and waiting for it to alight on a magic cloud of stardust and pixies. 

- Barry Orton

Comments

[antpoppa]

I cannot predict the future.

And neither can the political committee that organized this rally. However, after walking through the crowd I heard people that were deeply engaged in variations of American Mythology. What I heard is a lot of wanna-be warriors engaged in paramilitary entertainment. I've see this before as the Posse Comitatus organized throughout the state and the real warriors strapped on knives and guns to come to the forefront of the anti-government, anti-tax movement, moved up to Idaho and started shooting Federal Officers, and some of they're own members. ( and then off to Alaska!!).
Do these weak-tea organizers think they can keep the reigns on the Frankenstein Monster they are creating? Will the monster recognize the creator as friend or enemy?

[Irish Frog]

After looking at the signs, I concluded that the people at this tea-bagging event all received a tax cut under Obama. I didn't see anyone walking around that looks like they make over $250,000 a year, but hey, I could be wrong. It's hard to make the argument that taxes are out of control when we're going back to tax levels that Reagan was happy with.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure they would be on board with social darwinism, so that's one "social" they're in favor of :)

[MAL]

Just note on the power of a single blogger.

Madison's Jesse Russell of http://www.dane101.com/ snapped a picture of the whacks at the Capital and the shot was picked up all over the country: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/16/10-most-offensive-tea-par_n_187554.html , contributing well to the impressions of the true nature of the rallies.

[antpoppa]

Thanks MAL
The picture speaks to a thousand words. I'm in my 60's and remember the rhetoric of the posse real well. Now with the ability to strap on guns, through open carry, these politicians, like Ryan, should re access the rhetoric.

[Brian]

The ridiculous nature of the these protests about Obama being a socialist is that he's the very opposite one and has often testified to his faith in the free market. In fact, Obama is blind to the evidence of the failings of the free market economy. Want evidence? He's keep hiring free marketeers who crashed the economy. These people like Gensler, Geithner, Summers, Rubin, et al. should not only not be in government they shouldn't be anywhere near a government official.

It's like Nassim Taleb, the author of The Black Swan, said recently: if you have a guy who crashed a plane, you don't give him another plane. But that is what Obama has done. Facts are irrelevant.

[R.J.]

Who do they think they are? We need to ban these Tea Party events or arrest the protesters next time around.

[Reynolds]

Nice try at misdirection "R.J.". Do right-wing idiots like you enjoy sharing your true feelings about protests while pretending not to be a knuckle-dragging idiot?

[Chuck]

It's funny when people with a political agenda use the lunatic fringe to discredit an entire school of political thought. Look at the dirty stinky hippies^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hteapartiers! Ha ha!

[madmilker]

duh!
http://www.tyspk.com/Pages/Subpage/Documentaries/The%20Obama%20Deception.html