Tea Party in Boston – AP suggests 10,000 in attendance, while focus remains on Palin and Brown.

Tea Party held in Hartford, 2009 - Image TMP

The Associated Pressis suggesting that the Tea Party in Boston will draw an estimated 10,000 people today – the article then goes on to speak to the absence of Senator Scot Brown, who will be in Washington going about the people’s business. The deluge of articles on the subject, from the Boston Globe ”Welcoming Palin to Boston” to Business Week’s ”Palin’s Boston Rally With Tea Party Fails to Draw Senator Brown”, one might get the erroneous impression that the Tea Party is all about Palin and Brown. What the press does not seem to understand, or wishes to ignore, is the fact that neither Brown nor Palin are of import in regards to the Tea Party Movement, other than the fact that Palin is speaking (and Brown’s presence is not required.) The Tea Party Movement is a rally designed to protest excessive taxation and certain State and Federal policies that place an added burden on the “masses”, and also play fast and loose with the Constitution.

There are big questions that aren’t being asked (or are being avoided), for example: why are independents and Democrat joining the movement? Followed by: How come the Tea Party Organizers are mainly women? Finally, how many Tea Party chapters are there? Basic demographics might help the media understand why the Tea Party is making headway where traditional political parties appear to be standing still, or more to the point, attempting to downplay (The Democrats) and align (The Republicans) with members of this movement?

It is in reality a movement by and for the people, with an undefined central leadership, but the ability to communicate across state lines in order to draw significant attention (through large crowds in rallies) to policies they feel are not helping our economy, or more to the point, the middle class and those who are bound by fixed incomes. They are patriotic, and contrary to the continuous media sledgehammer, educated, every-day, Americans who are fed up with the way the government appears to ignore the people that fund and hire. One can meet a Tea Party activist in the grocery store (or outside collecting signatures for a particular fiscally conservative candidate), in the library researching the constitution, arms loaded with books including the Federalist Papers, and the guy next door.

On any given day of the week, a Tea Party meeting is taking place in towns and cities across the country, and on any given Saturday, one might find a band of protesters on a street corner holding signs and waving flags. A recent Rasmussen poll suggests that 24% of the general public considers itself part of the Tea Party Movement, with an additional 10% with a close friend and or relative belonging to the group.. In addition, 48% of those polled believe that their views are more closely aligned with Tea Party philosophy opposed to the 44% who believe they are closer in view to the Obama. The kicker, 52% believe that any Tea Party Member understand the Constitution better than their Congressional Representative. (Rasmussen).

Obviously, major political parties, the Obama administration and the press are aware of these statistics, which is most likely why the continual downgrading of the Movement, with a focus on Palin and Brown, (rather than the aforementioned) is what one finds in the daily news.

This morning, as the Tea Party members from across Massachusetts, and New England gather in Boston, it will be the rally itself, rather than the headliners, that should be the wake-up call that business as usual is on the way out, and that the people will exercise their right to hire or fire their representatives, both at the state and the Federal level, should they not reign in spending. It is a simple theme that transcends politics and politicians and resonates with every American regardless of party affiliation. That is the bigger story.

Sarah Palin On the Boston Commons – Democrats Plan Counter-Protests to Liberty Speech, plan to “Dress Well”

Tea Party Protest in Atlanta 2009, drew 15,000 to 20,000 image: altermdia
Sarah Palinis making a stop in Boston on Wednesday, April 14. Palin is the keynote speaker for the Tea Party Express stop on the Boston Commons. The rally, according to the Boston Globe, will draw “several thousand activists to Boston, where, according to local Massachusetts Democrat union leaders Palin does not belong. Apparently, not unlike “the Kennedy Seat”, the Bay State, belongs to the Democrats and their Unions. The fact that Scott Brown managed to take back the “people’s seat” has been lost on those in denial. What is more generally missed is that it was not so much Brown who was elected, but the people who were sending a message to the rest of the country from the land where David Axelrod test drove Obama’s election with his protégée Deval Patrick. Residents of Massachusetts saw the writing on the wall, well in advance of November 2008, and as the year progressed, and taxes on everything from dogs to satellite TV appeared, the proverbial straw broke that camel’s back. Palin does indeed belong in Massachusetts, as does anyone with a message that is pro-liberty and anti-tax. It is, after all, known as the “Cradle of Liberty, rather than the “birthplace of the Progressive-socialist agenda.”

In the interest of “fairness”, a counter protest to the “Tea Party Movement” is being planned by by a Kathleen Toomey, who used Facebook to attract 300 “anti-Tea Party protestors”. The gist of Ms. Toomey’s protest against the tea party – fashion – her group will be wearing “beautiful clothing” in order to highlight the fact that Tea Party Activists are not especially well-dressed. (In the world of Boston liberals, dressing well, apparently trumps intellect. Other counter-protests are planned, according to several sources, but the question remains, what on earth are they protesting - personal liberty, freedom from government and taxation? That’s about right for the Massachusetts DNC, and the Progressives that feel any form of small government, less taxes messages are over-the-top and should be censored.

That said, what is of interest is the crowd estimate of “several thousand” – Palin, who has drawn crowds average 10,000 plus at each of the Tea Party events, should be able to hold her own in Boston – When the sitting President, Barak Obama, goes to Portland, ME (an hour drive) he is able to draw at least a crowd – how large of a crowd – no-one’s talking. Articles from Boston to Maine put no estimate on the “crowds” that were there to see the President; rather emphasis is placed on the fact that there was a “crowd”. Which may be why Ms. Toomey and her 300 well-dressed pro-tax group feel the need to show up and protest – it is after all, in today’s world a popularity contest.

The reality is that no-one knows how large a crowd will be on the common on a Wed. morning in April to hear Palin or to participate in the Tea Party Express Rally. The fact that Massachusetts alone has Tea Party groups organized across the Commonwealth is lost on most media, as is the fact that Boston is accessible to every New England State, where, one can bet, there may be Tea Party Activists who are planning on attending.

Regardless of the size of the crowd (which remains to be seen), the change in the Bay State towards government intervention and taxation is palpable. As the 2010 Congressional Races offer opportunities for incumbents to retire, (90% of the Congressional seats are up for re-election), a Tax Day Tea Party with Palin as a speaker is the least of the Massachusetts DNC problems. The brand, in Massachusetts and elsewhere has been tainted with the spend and tax tar-brush, and that will stick until, as the signs say, the people “Kick the Bums Out” (via the polling booth).