What’s a peaceful protest other than the large-scale opportunity to agree to disagree? And that is just what happened last Thursday night when a few hundred Tea Party supporters joined 22 political candidates with signs and flags and made their way to Indiana State Building.
The Tea Party movement has become a fodder for the Daily Show and The Cobert Report. They have been celebrated and praised by radio talk-show hosts Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. So just as the heat of the day was wearing off and the sun was sinking, I took the walk down the canal toward the Indiana State House – the crowd of red, white and blue leading the way.
It didn’t take long to strike up a conversation with a man sitting on the edges of the crowd. He was sitting in a fold-out camping chair with a large wooden sign propped up against him. I took a seat on the curb and asked this man to help set me straight. Just what was is the Tea Party movementreally about?
“I believe that people don’t feel represented.” Parke County Tea Party member Andrew Kelly said. “We’re just like the regular tea party.”
Self-confessed “Regan-ite” and history buff, Kelly sees the current executive branch of government overstepping its bounds, much as he feels the British government did before the American Revolution.
“What we’re losing is our freedoms – our individual freedoms,” he said.
Kelly has been a teacher, a preacher and a student and a member of the navy. He has advanced degrees in history, listens to talk radio hosts Glenn Beck and Greg Garrison daily and has grown to find flaws in both major political parties.
“The Republican Party has lost their way,” he said.
Kelly is not only fearful, but also angry, of the Obama administration’s policies and their implications.
“The central government thinks they know better than the individual,” which he said leads to only one thing. “Liberalism is really Marxism.”
But it isn’t that fear alone that unites Tea Party supporters. Two other Parke County Tea Party members joined in on Kelly’s remarks.
“I shutter to think what my grandkids are going to do,” disabled war veteran Ray Harney said.
And Scott Patch seconded Harney’s sentiment. He worries that in the future, the values upon which was founded are going to wind up going away because of the amount of national debt, debt he feels will only be left to the future generations.
“We’re really here because of our children,” he said.
For young married couple Conrad and Sarah Mazeika, supporting the Tea Party movement seemed like much less of a show. They carried no signs, had on no costumes, but did stand with in quiet agreement to the many speakers that took the podium.
“I believe in small government and its principles,” Sarah said. She is hoping for more candidates aimed at restoring Constitutional values.
“It’s about energy, frustration and anger at the party in power,” Conrad said. “But it’s really more frustration than anything.”
Conrad, who hails from Bosnia and whose brother is currently fighting in Afghanistan, feels that the economic situation is what drove him to support the ideals of the Tea Party.
“The bailouts have done nothing,” he said.
And while healthcare reform was far from a bailout, Conrad sees it furthering the existing problem.
“There will be higher taxes and higher premiums,” he said.
Conrad, admits, however, that the situation was not much better under President Bush, whose national security he admires, but also helped contribute to the national debt.
But while the national debt remains over 11 trillion dollars, and Tea Party supporters want to believe otherwise, there is some controversy over whether taxes really are sky high.
Sheila Kennedy, former head of the Indiana American Civil Liberties Union, cites a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report that suggests federal tax on middle income families has reached a historic low, nearly the lowest in 50 years. A family of 4 only pays 4.6 percent in federal income taxes according to the non-partisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
Also according to the report dated April 14, “Middle income families faced significantly lower effective overall federal tax rates than in 2006.”
In the end, even though many supporters are scared that individual freedoms are going away, last Thursday the few hundred peaceful protesters exercised quite a few freedoms last Thursday that would only be possible in America. They were able to gather and publically support their candidates, none of their speakers, nor their signs, were censored and in November when Congressional elections are held it will be clear just how much of an effect the words, the actions, the beliefs of the Tea Party really have. Until then, it might be considered most patriotic if the nation tries to hold off on the hasty generalizations and focus more on similarities than differences.
Interviews conducted on 4/15/10 with:
Sheila Seuss Kennedy – former head of ACLU Indiana
Andrew Kelly – Parke Co. Tea Party member
Ray Harney– Parke Co. Tea Party member
Scott Patch– Parke Co. Tea Party member
Conrad Mazeika – local Tea Party & Dianne Hubbard supporter
Sarah Mazeika– local Tea Party & Dianne Hubbard supporter
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