On Sept. 12, a large crowd of protesters assembled in Washington, D.C. at the “Taxpayers March on Washington.” They came from around the country, carrying signs that said, “I’ll Keep My Freedom, You Keep the Change” and “Clunkers in Congress: Trade Them All In.” Many brandished Revolutionary War-era “Don’t Tread on Me” flags (known as Gadsden flags) and chanted “USA” slogans.
The Tea Party movement, which put together the protest, is labeled by many Americans as being conservative or libertarian, traditionally associated with the Republican Party. Yet many protesters have as much disdain for Republican politicians as Democrats.
One participant at the Washington rally wore a shirt that said “EMG,” for “Everyone Must Go.” Another said it was time to “drain the swamp” and “start from scratch.”
In fact, many participants are quick to point out that the Tea Party isn’t a “political party” thing at all.
The Web site for the Tea Party of Northern Colorado states that the movement is “not Republican or Democrat. It’s not libertarian or anarchist. It’s not left, right, or middle,” but in fact “transcends political party affiliation, because freedom is absolute: it either exists or it does not.”
Joe Swyers, 57, a registered Democrat in Colorado, sees it as “the right reacting against Democrats, and independents reacting against both parties.”
Swyers recognizes the Tea Party as a response to the “federal government getting out of our control,” with the “nationalization of our major industries—education, housing and health care—and increased socialism.
“The [modern] Democrats have left their party principles,” said Mr. Swyers. “They’ve abandoned [Thomas] Jefferson. They’ve become socialists.”
Eric Richter, 41, an independent from Georgia, sees the group as people who have reached the limit of their tolerance. He uses the metaphor of a stamp collector to describe what brought these Americans to the point of protest. “They don’t react to the little, individual things, but they put a stamp in their book to remember,” says Mr. Richter. “Pretty soon, the book is full. For these people, it keeps building and building, until they get fed up.”
Mr. Richter is concerned with the price increased government spending will have on future generations. “It’s about what’s right; what’s fair. I don’t want to burden my children with this.”
LaWanda McCoy, a registered Democrat from Oklahoma, says she thinks that the protesters “are just fed up” with the actions of politicians in power. “I think [those] people think Obama and the government are overstepping boundaries,” Ms. McCoy said.
The real story that comes across with the Tea Party, despite labels of a conservative or Republican movement, is the group’s general disdain for government spending and taxation, and a general distrust of the direction that the country is headed in.
This isn’t easy for politicians or the media to digest. The economy, health care, education, immigration, infrastructure, the deficit, and national defense are issues that our American culture and society say need to be addressed. And the only way to continue doing that, in the most straightforward and bipartisan way, is to create more bureaucracy, spend more money, and take more in taxes.
A sharp cut in spending and bureaucracy in any of these areas would leave many people in the United States upset and leave a politician, most likely, without a job.
The real problem is that conservative is the wrong word altogether. These people do not want to do something drastic that would hurt America, instead they want to put the brakes on the government, and see about simply settling debts and repairing what is already here.
There’s nothing conservative about that—it’s about taking care of a mess that’s already here.
