Current mood:
pleased Category: News and Politics
I attended my first Tea Party today.
No, I didn’t sit around a table with women wearing hats and gloves sipping fine teas with cream… I actually went to our State Capitol to check out the scene and listen to every day Americans (I’ll get to this later) discuss the effects and concerns over recent government spending and of course… taxes.
I’ve never been affiliated with any party and have never really paid that much attention to who or what a democrat or republican were… let alone that there are variations to these parties and that some prefer to be associated with the terms of conservative and liberal…
I guess I’m more of an issues girl… sometimes I can be on one side of an issue and on others I’m on the opposite side… I’ve never weighed these sides and therefore never noticed whether I was more left or right… I’ve been so oblivious to party affiliations that I can’t even tell you for what party some of my very best friends are for…
I am getting to a point…
In any event, according to those groups organizing Tea Party’s across the United States today, “the mission of the Tax Day Tea Party protests are to send a message to Washington and elected officials. To make sure that decision-makers in Washington know that there is significant opposition to reckless tax and spending proposals. The purpose is to send a reminder that elected officials work for us. We hired them, and we can fire them.” (And I would like to include here that careful attention has been given to ensure that these Tea Party organizers have NO party affiliation… that they are simply every day American people seeking to retain our American rights.) And yet as I lay in bed last night, I heard Rachel Maddow from MSNBC (democratically affiliated) talking about these Tea Party’s but calling them… tea bagging… and mocking the efforts stating that nobody knows what the “conservatives are talking about… taxation maybe… spending… President Obamas birth certificate perhaps… it’s not totally clear.”
Hmmm… it took me two seconds to find the mission online Ms. Maddow and I guess I don’t really get what the big deal is… are you saying that your for unnecessary spending and higher taxes, I’m just trying to understand.
Cut to today… I am still learning... and I am sure by now most of you know that I am going to be spending the rest of my life with a die-hard democrat… TURNED conservative republican (ha almost had ya there huh…) so I suppose that it’s only natural that I start learning about this stuff called politics. I haven’t heard much about democrats… heard a lot about liberals, and have recently heard that “republicans are rich, arrogant bastards who aren't for higher taxes and bailouts because they're greedy and don’t think they should have to pay more...”
Well then, imagine my surprise when attending the Tea Party today. Here I was, dressed in business attire standing amidst conservatives and republicans whom were dressed in their tattered army uniforms, US Navy jackets, USMC hats, Michigan State sweatshirts, biker chaps, USA flags, farmer overalls, yellow hard hats, and workers boots… the kind my father wears… In fact, myself and Shaun were in the minority at this event dressed in button ups and dress slacks… from where I stood, I very well could have been the most wealthy person there and we all know THAT ISN’T true.
This rally was filled with every day regular people, families, vets, bikers, country folk, business men, business owners, kids, students, etc... not a single one of them looked rich.
After the event we went to grab a sandwich. We came back to the capitol after the crowd had died down to get a closer look at some of the tables that were set up and listen to the patriotic lyrics of Brooks & Dunn and Aaron Tippin. A family leaving the rally with their signs proclaiming “America the free” and “What about my children’s future” tucked into their child’s stroller glided past us on the side walk… the man took one look at Shaun and I and said… "and here come the liberals..."
Um… WHAT????
First of all, I don't claim to be liberal or conservative and Shaun is the most conservative person I know... so why on earth did WE get labeled... it was interesting and I guess my first real taste of how politics can make people view others... on either side… and here is my point… your political affiliations are not visible through your skin color, the cloths you wear, and or the money you make… It angers me that I am even stating this because whether or not I am a liberal or conservative does not mean that I should be judged as either because I wanted to check out a Tea Party that happened to be discussing issues that are important to me… to me as a tax payer, to me as a citizen of the United States.
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