This article appeared in The Bulletin (Philadelphia-area newspaper) on 4/23/09. You can read the newspaper version here, or check out the print column every Thursday.
“Let’s be very honest about what this is about. It’s not about bashing Democrats, it’s not about taxes, they have no idea what the Boston tea party was about, they don’t know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up. That is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks. And there is no way around that.”
-Janeane Garofalo on MSNBC’s Olbermann Countdown
Last week, Americans attended an estimated 2,000 tea parties nationwide, one of the largest political demonstrations in recent memory. The gatherings touched nearly every part of the country, with small towns like Springfield, TN hosting parties of 75, and large cities like Atlanta hosting over 10,000. But, for much of the media and the current administration, the magnitude of this movement can simply be reduced to right-wing extremism, limited to a misinformed segment of the electorate. They are making a big mistake.
Media coverage was rife with biased and even vulgar commentary, referring to the events as extremist anti-Obama protests, and making countless inappropriate innuendos to “teabagging.” Politically, President Obama refused to directly address the issue, instead filtering his responses through Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. Gibbs dismissed the tea parties as misinformed, finding it “amusing” that
Thousands gather in Cincinnati for a tea party
Americans were uniting in protest despite President Obama’s “plan to cut taxes.” The now famous Department of Homeland Security memo called attendees who favor small government and conservative principles “right-wing extremists,” who must be watched with increased scrutiny in the name of national defense.
So what was I to expect when I prepared to attend a local tea party? Not to mention a tea party in rural Pennsylvania-where everyone clings to their guns and religion.
On Saturday, I attended a tea party at Washington’s Crossing in Pennsylvania, the famous site where George Washington crossed the Delaware River to battle the Hessians in 1776. It seemed a fitting location-a little less than 250 years ago, one of our nation’s founders led his men in a fight against government control and tyranny. Now, I was walking across the same field his men camped in that night, to join with 1800 others concerned about the course of our nation.
As I approached the crowd, I noticed something that might have shocked the media or President Obama: This was an extremely diverse crowd. I saw children, young adults, parents, and senior citizens. I saw Caucasians, African Americans, Asians, and Latinos. I saw men wearing suits standing with men wearing t-shirts. I saw women with children standing with young teenage girls. I saw signs with simple slogans like “Keep the change, we’ll keep our country,” held next to signs with historic quotes like Thomas Jefferson’s, “A country big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.” The speakers ranged from elected officials to concerned mothers, from local shop owners to Vietnam Veterans. This was no extremist gathering.
Rather, this was simply a gathering of people concerned that the country is heading in the wrong direction. People who believe in personal choice over government control, in low taxes over redistribution, in fiscal responsibility over wasteful spending, and in personal responsibility over government welfare. People who are not going to sit back and watch as defining American principles are abandoned in favor of European liberalism. The tenor of the afternoon was clear: We do not want to lose our country to a failed ideology.
For the first time in a long time, I had the sense that America’s true identity was not yet lost. Americans were doing what we always have-fight for our country. This was not the beginning of a violent revolution, but of a revolution of ideas. Conservatism lost its way over the last eight years, but the election of a sharply liberal administration has reinvigorated the movement. Sometimes juxtaposition is the best definition of truth. 
Though not surprising, the marginalization of the tea parties ignores the reality of a grassroots movement that is steadily building across the country. Americans are beginning to see that elections have consequences. The Republican Party is rebuilding itself on the conservative principles that once carried it to victory, and there has been a growing sense of buyer’s remorse among voters who expected a more moderate president. The tea parties were a product, not a driver, of this movement.
The tea parties certainly did not change the country overnight, or plot its new history. They did not lead to a change in government power, or a newly elected Congress. But what they did do was demonstrate that millions of Americans from all walks of life still passionately believe in our founding values.
As I watched the growing crowd sing the national anthem with more passion than I had ever seen, I couldn’t help but think that George Washington would be proud. Our tea party was not as heroic as his crossing the Delaware, or as historic as his colleagues’ Boston Tea Party. But in the same vein of our founders, who saw the injustice of government overreach, Americans are beginning to unite around the common ideals that have always made us American.
-Matt Benchener from TruPolitics.net
Cramer would later note that he thought Obama would be like Clinton, a centrist Democrat who wanted a balanced budget, with a mix of social and environmental programs, all under an umbrella of prudent governance. Instead, said Cramer, President Obama is unwisely pushing a far left agenda at a time of economic crisis.
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