Tea Party

Went to a tea party this evening at the courthouse square in town. There were about oh I'd say 200 people there. All most all of them are obviously what one would call lower middle class, or working class. I would guess that there were quite a few militia types there.

There were more people there, I think, then were at the anti Klan rally I attended a few years ago here. There was a cold drizzle so it was a good turn out, I would think. I got there late and left early. I was getting bored and angry at the speakers, much the same way I get mad at the TV. Very frustrating when you can't really do anything about it and in this case I couldn't even yell back. [Discretion/valor, etc.]

As I say there were more than a few militia there. One of the featured speakers was a locally famous militia guy, Cliff Eagleson. One that most of the attorneys in town are familiar with. There was also our state senator, Jimmy Stewart (yes that's right), I left while he was speaking.

The main speaker was a local physician who'd lost in a run for the state legislature last time, a Johnson. He had a bevy of kids and a speech that combined bad religion, with bad history, with bad economics.

One of the interesting aspects of the rally was how little police presence there was. Oh there were police there, but everyone was noticeably white and mostly middle aged. When I went to the anti Klan rally every one was searched for weapons and we were actually put in a cage. I would be willing to bet there were a lot more concealed weapons at this rally then there were at the anti Klan one.

Who could argue that we don't want to leave our kids with our bills, but of course if the various bail outs work the bills will be paid. The allegations the Social Security is a ponzi were thrown around by everybody (except Eagleson, his talk was indecipherable -- I could hear it I just couldn't understand it). Here were people for whom Social Security is all the stands between them and literally starvation nodding their heads when they are told it must go.

On the whole pretty sad, and kind of scary to see the folks who are buying into this shit. They have no real ways to object to what Obama is doing except to label it as communist (and now fascist), no real understanding. That is what I blame Obama for, he is simply doing what the wealthy and their employees have always done. He is not able or not willing to see that there is a better way, that doesn't suck up to the bankers and stock brokers. So in a way these people have a reason to be pissed, but instead of having a functional left to provide alternatives, they are really only permitted to hear the right.