A Dragon in Sheep’s Clothing

I don’t think any media outlet captured the full extent of the “tea party” movement. American Family Association, which provided technology so people could connect to organize local parties, knew of about 700 several weeks ago, but by April 15 well over 2000 events had registered with their site. Many more were drawn together by other organizations and websites, and some just did it on their own.

Just some numbers: The Madison, Wisconsin Capitol Police reported at least 6000 participated (other observers and some media estimated between 8,000 and 10,000) The police were amazed at the polite crowd that left behind no litter–and their messages were actually spelled correctly!

In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 5000 citizens watched as “colonists” threw “tea crates” (representing various taxes and bailouts) into the river from aboard a colonial “ship”. Note to environmentalists–no tea in the crates, and they were immediately fished back out of the river.

In Warsaw, Indiana, organizers were scrambling to make sure at least 30 people showed up, but were flabbergasted to see the crowd of 1300 that assembled. Another 3000 in Indianapolis, and an estimated 15,000 in Atlanta.

So despite the negative slant of major media reports, the message could not be missed by officials from small towns to the White House. (Amazingly, in Madison, Wisconsin, where participants then headed to legislative offices to “donate” tea bags to their representatives, all the Democrats were conveniently tied up in hearings all afternoon!

By the way, video of the Madison event is available at

http://www.vcyamerica.org/

where you can click on the “In Focus” link. It shows far more than the “couple of hundred people on the steps” reported by CNN. I think they just counted those on the speaker’s platform!