Today, I went down to the City Dock in Annapolis to check out the local “tea party,” one of many anti-Obama protests occurring around the nation today.
The message of the event was striking. The audience, which was quite large despite a heavy rain, was told that Obama was leading the country toward “dictatorship.” The government, we were told, was creating a crisis “100 times as grim as 9/11,” the people were being “brainwashed” into complacency by the media and soon “the face of big brother will be exposed and the slogans of a classless one party system are revealed to us.”
The answer to these problems, according to one speaker, is to kick Obama and the leaders of the Democratic party in Maryland out of office. In the audience, one man wore a shirt comparing Obama to Hitler. Watch a video compilation:
Many of the most prominent Republicans in Anne Arundel County participated in the event including Delegate Ron George, Delegate Don Dwyer, Alderman and mayoral candidate Dave Cordle and former Delegate Herb McMillen. Dwyer, dressed in colonial garb threw the “tea” into the Annapolis harbor. McMillen, current head of the Maryland Taxpayers Association, acted as the MC.
39 Responses to “Annapolis Tea Party: U.S. Government Creating Crisis ’100 Times As Grim As 9/11′”
Deeks on 15 Apr 2009 at 4:13 pm #
As a resident of Annapolis, the irony and hypocrisy of this event is amazing. These are the same people who supported 8 years of unchecked spending, the unwarranted tapping of cell phones and the monitoring of the books we check out from the library.
And yet somehow, they are comparing Pres. Obama to Hitler.
This is what happens when you lose a democratically held election. You’re in the minority. It is not tyranny, it is not fascism, it your beliefs becoming more and more obsolete.
The irony of protesting taxes outside the gates of the U.S. Naval Academy is comical. Yet these are the same people who cheered as we were lead to war in Iraq.
For those of you who stood in the rain, you have been duped by what has become nothing short of a marketing campaign for Fox News.
Dee on 15 Apr 2009 at 4:26 pm #
This is so stupid! Unless Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey and Warren Buffett are out there protesting, most of these nut jobs out there shouting at the wind are the main ones that are in line to see their tax rates go down under Obama!
Just how ignorant do you have to be to protest something that will directly benefit you?
Just goes to show you, dumb knows no race, creed or gender!
William K. Wolfrum on 15 Apr 2009 at 4:44 pm #
You are brave, indeed. There’s still a ways to go today, and hopefully these things won’t devolve into racist mobs. I honestly don’t think it’s likely, but Fox and others have definitely stoked those fires.
andrew on 15 Apr 2009 at 4:52 pm #
Odd how the left is so outraged over these events. One would almost think there’s a concerted smear effort going on.
Civil Servant on 15 Apr 2009 at 5:08 pm #
By invoking the American revolution they are attempting to establish an idea of the Obama administration as being an other. In the same way that the founding fathers had become the living embodiment of a mercantile class rising against a self entitled aristocracy, these “revolutionaries” have no guiding principle, merely rhetorical ones. By framing the issue via the lens of “liberty and freedom” these people want to ignore their responsibility-to others- as citizens and are asking the government to ignore its principal design.
We have a system of government designed to check the excesses of society by preventing any one individual or group from completely dominating and destabilizing the rest of society. Conservatives have had de-regulation, eased marginal tax rates for the top 1% and we have this mess to show for it. Sadly what these “revolutionaries” fail to realize is that they are pawns. The Rick Santilli’s of the world have managed to demonize the poor/middle class by saying that they were the ones who have created the mess by purchasing homes. But in saying that these people try to ignore the basic problem that market de-regulation creates. Worst still, it is the poor who often demonstrate to uphold values that they do not fully understand.
NotOutraged on 15 Apr 2009 at 5:09 pm #
Andrew – Outraged? Hardly. Amused? Yes. The hypocrisy and outrageously silly behavior of a TINY percentage of the 20% of the population that supported Bush till the day he left office, standing in the rain, attempting to look like patriots, all at the urging of Fox News which has _never_ been a credible news agency? I think you need to look up the definition of outraged. We’re all just laughing. Which, in this rough economic time that conservatives created (And liberals did little to prevent), a little laughter is good for the soul.
Joseph E Edwards VIII on 15 Apr 2009 at 5:13 pm #
Oh boy… “We’re a Christian nation! Whether you like it or not!”
True? Not. We’re a secular Republic founded on Freemasonic principles, not Christian principles.
Read this essay to learn more about the Hermetic (and Masonic) origins of the U.S.:
http://eggheaded.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/hermetic-origins-of-the-usa/
Dennis Bossinger on 15 Apr 2009 at 5:13 pm #
Can you say Sedition ,Traitors, terrorists ,some of these people in Maryland should be in jail . Another FOX idea presented by Ruperve Murdork . FOX is dangerous . They are destroying america before our very eyes . Can anyone ever imagine the minority party working with the majority party ever again. Lies and more lies .
andrew on 15 Apr 2009 at 5:20 pm #
Okay “notoutraged” I’ll bite. I would really love to hear how the conservatives created this mess.
And it would be helpful if the explanation didn’t trail off into “they gave lots of money to rich people who I hate and something or other…..”
I realize it’s rather a large issue and a blog isn’t really the place to hash out such issues, but since we’re clearly a country of bumper sticker thinking, perhaps we should also become a country of blog explanations.
andrew on 15 Apr 2009 at 5:27 pm #
And Mr Edwards:
Referencing oneself isn’t really making a point. It’s a little more like mental masturbation. Perhaps “self teabagging” is more apropo.
WeThePeople on 15 Apr 2009 at 5:27 pm #
Where were these teabag folks when Dubya was in office? That president had some core beliefs that were impervious to any empirical qualification.
A case in point: Lower taxes were always good, regardless of the economic climate. In his campaign, Dubya defended his tax cuts as a way to ensure that the burgeoning surplus he inherited would not be swallowed up by government. When the economy sank in the wake of the bursting tech-bubble and 9/11, Dubya defended the tax cuts on opposite grounds: they were necessary as a Keynesian demand stimulus in a contracting economy. When deficits soared in his first term, Dubya cited keeping the tax cuts as a way to prevent a new recession, and thereby prevent future deficits. It soon became apparent that the tax cuts were simply a matter of faith, unrelated to any empirical context or consistent rationale. Even if you supported the tax cuts, it was impossible logically to support every argument Dubya made in their defense, because they were mutually contradictory and constantly changing.
Try this experiment: Under what circumstances would Dubya actually raise taxes? Not for war; not for soaring deficits; not even with annual growth nearing 4 percent. Only one thing you could say for sure: Dubya never defended cutting taxes as a way to curtail the power and scope of government. Nor did he ever insist on balancing the government’s books to keep the next generation out of perilous and mounting debt. That sort of conservatism was over. The proof of that came in the staggering expansion of government power and spending under Dubya.
And most of Dubya’s tax cuts were back-loaded, with their real costs shunted a few years into the future. The same could be said for Dubya’s championing of a dramatic new expansion of Medicare, the government health-care program for the elderly. Put those together and peer toward the horizon and the bankrupting of the American government comes into sharper focus. Barack Obama didn’t cause the current day problems; he inherited this mess.
andrew on 15 Apr 2009 at 5:30 pm #
“WeThePeople” has it! well done sir. I stand corrected. A coherent thought has appeared.
CatoTheCensor on 15 Apr 2009 at 5:36 pm #
Ah, a veritable rainbow coalition of people in every shade of white, coming together in ignorance to dress in silly costumes and protest something they can’t define, but manage to be nebulously angry about anyway.
NotOutraged on 15 Apr 2009 at 5:42 pm #
Andrew,
Yes, blogging definitely not the best place to get into a huge discussion, and I’ll freely admit that while I consider myself relatively well versed, I’m hardly an area expert. For the past 30 to 40 years though, conservatives, and even a fair number of “moderate” democrats (as well as blue dogs) has pushed for more and more deregulation of financial markets, allowing greater consolidation of banks, services that were kept [wisely] divided at this places allowed to be put all under the umbrella of one company (one company doing cautious, careful growth based investments also doing massively risky hedge funds, for instance.. bad combo), and allowing really dodgy loan setups to people who never thought they might be able to buy a home to trick them into thinking they can suddenly afford one.. all of these things contribute. I’m not saying people who bought a home they couldn’t afford are blameless. They’re not, but if you look at some of the loan packages that only came into existence in the last decade, understanding how they work and the implications of the variable payments 6 months after the adjustable kick in occurs, requires more financial understanding than a majority of Americans have. This also led to massive artificial increases in home sales, driving up prices, driving up the barrier to entry and increased fragility in the credit markets once all those people who didn’t understand the loans they got suddenly not being able to pay. A society panics, stops buying for fear of losing their home, lose their home ANYWAY, and the spiral continues from there.
So while conservatives are hardly the only ones to blame, this has been the single biggest goal of the fiscal right wing since Barry Goldwater: The free market will reign itself in, so de-regulate, and let business run it’s course. It’s “self-balancing”.. Well, it’s not, and intelligent regulation of businesses that control 90% of the money in the United States is of paramount government interest, and the massive deregulation that started primarily when Reagan took office, and saw it’s culmination during Bush, Jr.’s first term, in addition to ill concieved tax cuts to the richest Americans, prompting them to further excess in an effort to take advantage of the money train while Republicans controlled the entire government, has ultimately led us to where we are today. This is already too long, but that’s a pretty reasoned view of things, that even many moderate Republicans recognize as the core causation of our current recession.
NotOutraged on 15 Apr 2009 at 5:52 pm #
As a note, all my information is culled from listening to conservatives and liberals and moderates speaking with NPR’s broadcasters in the morning and evening on my drive too and from work, as well as a little Googling now and then to learn more about something I didn’t understand on the drive. NPR is your friend. It definitely leans left, or at least has the appearance of it due to the subjective views that sometimes get aired, but it’s the closest to objective reporting you’ll find, outside of the Economist. Marketplace at 6PM pacific time is a great time to get some really solid, well distilled analysis of things if you lack for time.
Pam In Annapolis on 15 Apr 2009 at 5:57 pm #
Outraged – maybe you should watch Fox News and get a good history lesson. After all it is the NUMBER ONE news channel! You missed out on a great history lesson today and we would all defend our country in the rain, snow, etc.. What happened to you?
Just watching from the couch will not get you answers!
God Bless MY America
NotOutraged on 15 Apr 2009 at 6:01 pm #
Pam, pretend I’ve had a long day full of meetings. Please tell me you’re being funny.
Crockandstuff on 15 Apr 2009 at 6:13 pm #
Pam – Seriously worried about your post. Are you saying you received your history lesson from FOX News? Are you kidding?
Do yourself and every true American a favor and look up what the actual Tea Party stood for.
P.S. We now have Taxation WITH Representation….or maybe FOX didn’t tell you…
Pam In Annapolis on 15 Apr 2009 at 6:23 pm #
No I don’t need Fox to tell me what the actual Tea Party stood for! Today was a day where serious minded people from all races are worried about there future. Wake up and quit making this a popular contest. Its our country and Obama and Pelosi and the rest on the hill are TRYING to take that from us, while they live hign on the hog!
Sorry about your long meetings Outraged..do they let you take a break to blog???????
EddieGDub on 15 Apr 2009 at 7:01 pm #
I would love for Pam to give us a history lesson on what the original tea party stood for and the parties involved. Then I would like her to point out how that Tea Party resembles this silly farce that happened today in any fashion whatsoever.
kickingleft on 15 Apr 2009 at 7:02 pm #
Honestly, I can’t even try to take these idiots seriously until they decide what we are. Are we socialists or are we fascists? Since they two things are actually exact opposites of one another, we cannot be both.
So, please decide, then I might pay a little more attention.
mike hunt on 15 Apr 2009 at 7:11 pm #
Pam: I love how you and the rest of the conservative clowns talk about defending your liberties when just a few years ago you all supported the Patriot Act. Wire tapping, search and seizure without a warrant or cause are not infringements of personal liberties, but extending unemployment benefits and getting rid of Bush’s tax cuts that left the middle and lower classes behind are?
Last I checked elections are majority wins – “popularity contests,” and the overwhelming majority of Americans elected Obama.
andrew on 15 Apr 2009 at 7:22 pm #
Last I checked elections are majority wins – “popularity contests,” and the overwhelming majority of Americans elected Obama.
Ummm…. y’know that’s how we got “W”…
right genius?
andrew on 15 Apr 2009 at 7:38 pm #
went ahead and went to one of these tea parties now that I’ve seen how it makes our modern intelligentsia foam at the mouth like drug addled folk singers.
I think everyone should be happy to note that instead of orchestrating ANOTHER financial collapse through the use of financial derivatives so complex a PhD in mathematics from MIT could barely understand. We chose to cling to guns an jesus.
Jeffrey A. Haines on 15 Apr 2009 at 7:48 pm #
It seems like the entire Annapolis Twitterverse was at this thing today. I’m not sure what encouraged so many to attend, especially in the downpour. I guess I appreciate that so many people felt so passionate about something that they congregated, even though I don’t particularly agree with their message.
NotOutraged on 15 Apr 2009 at 8:22 pm #
Ok, Andrew. I thought you wanted real discourse. But since you’re using “intelligentsia” as an insult (As we steadily march down a road to Idiocracy), clearly, I was mistaken. Good day, sir.
andrew on 15 Apr 2009 at 8:49 pm #
and good day to you… (great movie by the way)
Perhaps the mistake was mine…. May I suggest you look up “fundamental attribution error” next time you’re researching something from NPR that gives you the impression that:
“this has been the single biggest goal of the fiscal right wing since Barry Goldwater:”
Broad generalizations and consequence bias are useful in “real discourse”.
no?
The protest that wasn’t: teabagging | Hanlon's Razor on 15 Apr 2009 at 10:24 pm #
[...] you find out the local Blockbuster upped the price by a dollar. But to be calling the economic plan “100 times worse than 9/11″ and equating Obama with Mao Zedong and Hitler, it means that this is as dire a situation as it [...]
Margaret on 15 Apr 2009 at 11:15 pm #
It’s unusual to see the hard working, bill paying, earnest American take the day off to protest. Sure they’re nerdy or rough around the edges but they’re not professional demonstrators. They just don’t like handing their pay check over to AIG, Acorn, and other pet projects of the party that “won”.
Sure they disapproved of Bush spending…who wouldn’t? But we’ve managed to raise the official national debt from $500 billion to over $11 Trillion just since the 08 election. Were Bush and Obama working in tandem? Probably. Obama greatly expanded the Patriot act to include wiretapping on US citizens Within the US and added no government liability. The proposed gun law Exempts all government employees from both the gun law And all liability. So it’s far more than upping the ante on Bush spending.
If you think Miss richy rich Pelosi from San Francisco or MR. getting- richer- by -the -second Emmanuel are looking out for the little guy I have swamp land for sale. It’s all about complete power over the people and that’s wrong no matter whose party is pushing it.
john b on 16 Apr 2009 at 7:20 am #
I attended the tea party in Annapolis. I took off work to do so in the pouring rain. The t-shirt and the clip shown were not representative of the entire event nor the mood of the protesters. This selective reporting is pushing an agenda that is unsupported by all the facts.
Brian on 16 Apr 2009 at 8:14 am #
Why is it that when I protest against “Government” policy that I’m labeled as a racist and a right wing extremist??
I was in Annapolis to protest against the 27% of my weekly paycheck being taken from me and my family. I work hard for my money and when my family has to cut back on everything and struggle to pay our bills, I get mad!!!! I can use that money to prosper. Oh but isn’t that what is written somewhere in that paper called the Constitution?? I have to run my house on a balanced budget. Oh, but isn’t that what the Constitution requires our government to do??
This isn’t a party issue. This isn’t a race issue. This is OUR government operating outside the Constitutional guidelines for which it is sworn to uphold.
The government does not have the power to do so and it is up to “We the People” to say and do something about it.
So next time I am being labeled as a racist, right winger, Bush supporter remember that it was people like myself that you can thank because you no longer have to bow to a king and be ruled with out Democracy.
I suggest you take a moment from your day and give the Constitution a fresh look.
karen on 16 Apr 2009 at 8:44 am #
Bravo! Bravo! Brian! I was also at the Annapolis Tea Party and didn’t see
the guy in the Hitler shirt. Remember Libs; the government works for our
liberty and sovernity not the other way around. Last I checked the constitution was written to protect our rights for freedom not the government’s freedom to spend our future.
BettyC on 16 Apr 2009 at 8:56 pm #
You are so right Margaret and Karen, the African Americans that are for Obama now will change their mind in the near future when he tells them what to do and when to do and how high to jump and last but not least so your broke I don’t care because now I am a dictator and you are nothing and that goes also for us white folks too and any other race you fools. You just don’t get it do you. If Obama was all that great of a President he would fire Ken Lewis in a heart beat but he want. I have a little money in Bank of America for retirement but as soon as possible I’m pulling it out and putting into my local small community bank and thats what ALL you people should do asap. Let bank of america sink!!!!
M.S. Wright on 16 Apr 2009 at 8:56 pm #
for those of you who disagree no one forced you to attend , but it is our right as citizens to protest what what we feel is wrong. It would appear that many people who voted for Obama are not pleased with the way the country is going. I wonder what would happen if the election was held now!
Oh and just in case you don’t know Fox news is the most watched news show. It shows that truth will win out if the people can only get a chance to hear it.
Claire on 17 Apr 2009 at 3:43 am #
I attended, and this is the most lop-sided video–specifically chosen speakers and individuals to make a point rather than report on the event as a whole. I notice that Smigiel isn’t mentioned in the blog, although he was front and center for quite a bit of the time during the heavy rain.
My group was made up of atheists who simply disagree with the way the government spends our tax dollars–not just during the Obama administration. Everyone should be outraged about the hidden pay-offs to Wall Street, where bonuses were the equivalent of many people’s salaries.
TJ on 18 Apr 2009 at 6:51 pm #
Awww, are the poor little Lefties getting upset because Americans are invoking their rights to assembly and speech?
Let’s all ridicule the Republicans, Democrats and Independents — all 500,000+ who came out to voice their disapproval of tripling the National Debt over the next ten years.
It took 230 years to create our current debt and 10 years to triple it — and you make fun of the protesters?!?!?! Lemmings.
TJ on 18 Apr 2009 at 6:53 pm #
Funny how this is the only one of your posts to get comments.
Julien on 24 Apr 2009 at 3:20 pm #
We have money to invade other contries, start wars, destabalize the middle east, spend millions on single use “smart bombs” but not to help our own economy? Helping our economy makes sense.
Ghost on 24 Apr 2009 at 9:21 pm #
This clip was a few seconds of a 2+ hour event… a few seconds specially chosen to show the attendees in the worst light possible. It was not very representative of the event as a whole. I guess the editor of the clips took his lessons from Michael Moore, though Moore at least shows some talent in his propaganda films. I was surprised that this editor was willing to show that there were black protesters, though. After all, everyone who attended was only there because they are racists, right?
Well, lefties, enjoy your 6 months of $8 tax cuts (yes, they will expire this fall, and they sure are dinky, boy did you get fooled, huh?) then come back to earth and figure out where all these trillions of dollars are going to come from! (Hint: taxing the richest Americans at 100% of their pay (every dime they have) won’t cover it!) And when your tiny little brains finally realize that you are going to actually have to play a part in paying for this ridiculous spending, I will have no sympathy for you.