On April 15th, we interrupted my vacation in Tahoe to participate in a rousing tax-day tea party in Carson City, Nevada. We joined over two thousand souls who were tired of watching President Obama chip away daily at our individual liberties and bankrupt the country we love. To the dismay of liberals and their mainstream media supporters, Americans showed up in the tens of thousands across the United States. These were no parties of the rich gathering in their finery for fundraising tea parties. These were average Americans coming together to take a stand for individual liberty! In doing so, they came face to face with a reassuring reality—they were not alone!
The media coverage underestimated the numbers and focused their video segments to reinforce the stereotypes it loves to convey—just a bunch intellectually-challenged, gun-supporting, abortion-hating extremists. To be sure there were signs of protest against gun control and abortions, but what came together was a cross-section of America. It was laughable when one ABC correspondent reported that those attending were a “front for corporate interests.” They would have rather tar and feathered any executive now living in the lap of luxury as a result of tax-funded bailouts.
To the left-leaning media, it was good for the country when people went to the streets by the thousands in support of Obama’s “hope and change.” They all but passed out palm leaves to wave at their ”messiah” and let supporter after supporter extol his virtues without a single challenging question.
Now, to support their liberal “savior” in the face of critical demonstrators, they worked overtime to turn those gathered at the tea parties into aberrant extremists. Watching CNN correspondent Susan Roesgen rudely interrupt and attack one of the protestors for his views and slam the event for being "anti-government," "anti-CNN," and "not really family viewing," was all one needed to understand how embarrassingly biased mainstream political media coverage has become.
After seeing a large demonstration, one moderate friend asked, “That was amazing to watch! When do you get that many people out demonstrating when it isn’t even an election year?” It’s easy to explain! These Americans know what President Obama’s rapid race to socialism means to America’s future, and they realize that the time for action is now.
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Whether those who elected him to office can see what is happening, the euphoric cult of personality that helped get Obama elected is giving way to the realistic fear that our economy and our country is sinking into the quicksand Obama and his friends are creating. The president and his family are easy to like as people, but it’s the future he’s creating that more and more Americans fear.
The tea parties gave Americans an opportunity to voice those concerns. Signs were everywhere. Here are some of my favorite slogans and a quick comment I can’t resist adding:
Free markets not free loaders! You don’t build a stronger economy by punishing the productive and funding those in our midst who would rather be dependent than free. Free markets are painful at times, but they still work better than big government interventions and runaway entitlements.
When Obama runs out of rich people to tax, he’ll be coming after YOU! You can take all the money from the top 5% wealthy Americans and it wouldn’t pay for the debts and entitlements Obama is creating. The rest of the taxpayers and our children are next.
Barney Frank—Bernie Madoff…And the Difference Is? Obama’s blamed Bush, greedy business executives and lack of regulatory oversight, but he keeps forgetting to include Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and all those Democrats who created the push for unwise loans that greed could use, took campaign funds and vehemently resisted Republican efforts to increase regulatory oversight over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Don’t take my money; take my work ethic! What Americans need are not more bailouts that reward failure—we need more tough love and a return to self-reliance and true community support.
Time to read the bill before you sign it. Speed is not a virtue when you are spending taxpayer money and creating deficits that will bankrupt America. Obama campaigned on transparency, but he’s governed with a blind “Father Knows Best” paternalism on steroids. When the blind lead the blind in Washington, watch your wallet.
Honk if you don’t want your tax dollars spent on illegal aliens! It’s a big “YES” for Immigrants who make the American mosaic rich and strong. It’s a resounding “NO” to illegal immigrants who take jobs and services taxpayers have pay for. Go home and help transform your own country.
Stop spending my grandson’s future. Most parents are upset when you take their money, but when you pass budgets and programs that will saddle their children and grandchildren with debts that will bankrupt them, they’ll fight with everything they have until their dying breath!
Read my lipstick—Give me my money and keep the change! Every improvement is the result of change, but not all changes are improvements. Obama’s changes are producing a man-made disaster for America far worse than global warming!
Simply with Fair Tax—Tax consumption not production! Your definition of simplifying taxes means fewer and fewer Americans will be paying more and more of the taxes. Unite us by treating us all the same—trade income taxes for a consumption tax where you exempt necessities and then everyone pays the same fair share on everything they consume!
Attention Washington: You have run out of our money! The piggy bank is empty, and you want to keep adding programs. We can’t afford the entitlements we already have. Public employee pension costs are bankrupting many cities. States are increasing every tax they can find to avoid default. Businesses are folding or leaving. Foreign governments are not jumping to fund our debt because they no longer trust our future either. It’s time to say NO to more spending and entitlements!
Give me liberty not debt! Don’t give me bailouts or token stimulus payments. Stop taking my money and let me use it to take care of my own health insurance and my own future pension.
Please don’t tell Obama what comes after a trillion! Obama has no concept of the debt he is creating. This is not Monopoly money; this is our money he’s wasting. Even the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the president’s $3.6 trillion budget will produce record-breaking deficits of $9.3 trillion over the next 10 years.
I voted for hope and change and all I got was higher taxes and more debt. Obama’s teleprompter fed Americans the empty words and empty phrases that got him elected, but it doesn’t take long to realize that there’s no beef in his bun. In Texas, Obama’s all hat and no cattle!
If I don’t pay my taxes, can I get a bailout or cabinet position? Stop paying your taxes now and you too might be selected as Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s replacement! Being a tax cheat seems to be a qualification.
Obama Lied and My 401K Died! Obama said he had the answers to save our economy, he’d bring our troops home in 2009 and he could stop North Korea and Iran from developing nuclear weapons by talking. How is his nose looking today? It’s probably growing faster than your investments!
If only Obama would bow to the Constitution! You promised to uphold the Constitution and you claim you never actually bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. If you’ll lie about the small things, why should we trust you to uphold the Constitution?
Stop using taxpayer money as petty cash to buy votes! How many illegal aliens will you adopt as citizens and how many Americans will you make sure never pay any income taxes to buy the votes that will keep you in power?
Save Trees! Stop Printing Money! You justify transformational changes with an environmental crisis that many scientists question. So, if saving trees will motivate you to stop pumping money into our economy, go for it! The inflation you’re creating now will be a death sentence for Americans on fixed income.
In God We Trust—In Obama We Doubt! We must stop apologizing to the world for what makes us great. If Obama is the Christian he claims to be, it’s time for him to be publicly proud of the role of the Judeo-Christian faith has had in shaping and sustaining America, our rights and the religious freedom that makes it safe for all religions to practice their faith without fear of stonings or beheadings!
Now, before Republicans get too excited, let it be known that these demonstrators’ anger wasn’t limited to President Obama and the Democrats. Many speakers criticized Republicans for not walking their conservative principles and out-spending the Democrats under President Bush.
This growing passion for small government, fair taxes and fiscal restraint can be used to help the Republicans make major gains in the 2010 mid-term elections. But it won’t happen unless Republicans get in front and lead.
If Republicans don’t craft a new Contract with America that captures the principles these demonstrators are clamoring to restore, they can watch this passion morph into a third party that will ensure the Republican Party’s irrelevance. Become the vehicle to drive the cause or become the victim that is buried by it. The tea parties provided the earthquake; get ready to ride the tsunami that is on its way!
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