Reading Tea Leaves

I have arrived in DC on the evening of tax day. I missed the tea party by about 5 hours, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Sweet Tea, so I don’t think I would have liked it anyway. In fact, it turns out that it wasn’t much of a party at all. Protesters arrived in Lafayette Park with one million bags of tea and plans to dump them in a symbolic gesture of civic unrest. Unfortunately, they forgot to get the proper permits and were forced to pack up their rain soaked tea bags and leave. Personally, I find it pretty hilarious that a group dedicated to protesting government waste completely squandered not just the cost of one million tea bags but also a golden opportunity to make strong visual statement. On second thought, this whole situation might not be that funny.

In Texas today, Governor Rick Perry spoke at a Tea Party rally in Austin (one of three he attended) and suggested that Texas might secede from the Union because of Federal mismanagement of tax dollars. "There's a lot of different scenarios," Perry said. "We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we're a pretty independent lot to boot." The audience waved flags and signs reading “secede!”

It’s interesting how upset people are about taxes, big government and the Stimulus package. They are so angry with our government and its leadership decisions that they want to break apart our nation. Fox News is calling it a “grassroots movement” and Glenn Beck is inviting families to take their kids out of school to join in, “see history being made.” This is a red, white and blue, apple pie eating, all-American day for true patriots.

Sarcasm aside (at least for a minute), I believe our country was founded on people standing up for what they believe in. The founding fathers risked their lives to establish the rights and liberties that we so freely enjoy today. Unfortunately, the passion and intelligence of a John Adams or a Thomas Jefferson are missing in the self-serving oppositions currently being flaunted. I may be a little jaded, but the politicians on either side of almost any issue are primarily interested in only one thing: re-election. And the throngs of protesters who show up...signs in hand, fists in air and chants on their breath...only do so based on which political party is currently in office.


I admit that I may have some residual frustration and a little bit of “are you kidding me?” response to these patriotic protesters who are so angry with our government and its leadership. My problem is that I still vividly remember getting ugly looks, verbal lashings and the threat of familial exile for even suggesting that our invasion of Iraq was ill conceived and irresponsible. Yes, just five short years ago I was deemed “un-patriotic” for questioning our government and its leadership. People like me didn’t love our great country and didn’t support our troops. (Funny, I kind of thought wanting them to be at home with their families and not dying was pretty supportive, but we all have the right to our opinion).

Now the name calling is even worse. I’m not just “unpatriotic,” I am also a “socialist,” and probably a “communist” too (although I doubt many of those who would say that know the difference). We’ve got lots of other dirty words in our vocabulary today, like “liberal” and “right wing extremist.” The use of either one conjures up abstract images of unfettered evil (depending on your political viewpoint).

It may not surprise me, but it definitely saddens me that this groundswell of protests that is being idealized as “patriotic” revolves around MONEY. I have to admit that I am also concerned about the growing National Debt and the possibility that the Stimulus Plan might not work. From where I sit and with the job I have, I see massive amounts of goverment waste. It's been going on for years and encouraged by both parties. There are entire Departments of the goverment that I believe could shut down today and the only people who would even notice them missing tomorrow would be those who do not continue to get a paycheck.

Part of my problem with these protests is the timing. Most of it has the bitter feel of sour grapes. It's not a generic, honest protest on Big Goverment or those people would have been picketing the White House while the Department of Homeland Security was created and swollen to a bloated, unweildy size. We HAVE created a monster...and it's been out of control for a long time. These protests stink of anger and frustration over the loss of an election and more importantly the loss of idealogical control. The frustration is understandable, I have felt some of that in the past as well. However, there's an ugly double standard at play here. The suggestion that it’s somehow okay to threaten secession and wave hate signs for a President over money, while questioning the purpose and justification of sending soldiers into harm’s way is not…well, there’s something fundamentally wrong with that.