Lets use liberal math to calculate attendance at last weeks nationwide Tax Day Tea Party protests.
When left-wing activists make crowd estimates the algorithm is: six figures = one million. An incomplete survey of newspaper accounts and organizer estimates pegged the Tea Party protest population at a minimum of 250000. We can now therefore officially call it the Million Taxpayer March.
Or the Million Right-Wing Extremists March if you work for the Department of Homeland Security.
To George Soros-funded grievance professionals 250000 is an insignificant number. But unlike recent anti-war and pro-illegal-immigration rallies padded with union workers college students and homeless people the Tax Day Tea Party demonstrations featured small-business owners working taxpayers and families.
This wasnt a weekend or holiday mind you. A quarter-million people took time off in the middle of the workweek to raise their voices against reckless taxing and bipartisan spending.
Multimillionaire jet-setter Nancy Pelosi scoffed that the Tax Day Tea Party movement was nothing more than Astroturf politics to protect the wealthiest people. Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky called the peaceable assemblies despicable.
Other Tea Party-bashers grumbled that activists only showed up where Fox News cameras were. But tens of thousands more came out in rain snow and cold in Bozeman Mont.; Eau Claire Wis.; Carson City Nev.; White Plains N.Y.; Bend Ore.; Lansing Mich.; Hilo Hawaii; Nashville Tenn. and everywhere in between with no media personalities or celebrities in sight.
If only the condescending cable TV anchors at CNN and MSNBC had paused from wallowing in gutter puns about tea bags they might have reported an even more significant phenomenon: Tea Party protesters were as vocal in their criticism of Republicans as they were of Democrats.
In Salt Lake City a crowd of 2000 repeatedly booed GOP Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett who both supported the $700 billion TARP bailout and protested GOP Gov. Jon Huntsmans decision to accept $1.6 billion in porky stimulus funds.
In Sacramento Tea Party organizer Mark Meckler singled out California GOP Chair Ron Nehring for waffling on proposed $16 billion tax hikes. The crowd of 5000 greeted Nehring who unsuccessfully tried to hitch his wagon to the Tea Party movement with a roar of boos and catcalls.
Speaker after speaker lambasted Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for abandoning fiscal-conservative principles. The loudest chant of the day: Throw them out.
In Madison Wis. GOP Rep. Paul Ryan hyped as a conservative rock star was well received. But I heard from staunch fiscal-conservative constituents who refused to be silent about Ryans complicity in the rush to pass TARP last fall and his votes for the auto bailout and the Barney Frank-Nancy Pelosi AIG bonus-bashing stampede.
Milwaukee blogger Nick Schweitzer wrote: He ought to be apologizing for his previous votes not pretending he was being responsible the entire time but I dont see one bit of regret for what he did previously.
Other Tea Party participants pointed out that Newt Gingrich who jumped aboard the bandwagon flip-flopped on TARP in the space of a week last September and made cause with Al Gore and Pelosi in ads calling for action on climate change.
Before the Tea Party movement took them by surprise Beltway strategists argued the GOPs traditional focus on taxes and spending had become outdated. The re-branders pitched their own ideas to replace the anti-tax-and-spend agenda and inspire new voters. They included Gingrichs green conservatism David Frums proposal to raise carbon taxes and open-borders Republicans plans for new forms of amnesty.
Eco-zealotry and in-state tuition discounts for illegal aliens didnt bring out thousands of first-time activists. Stay-at-home moms werent up all night making signs that read Tax me more please!
What resonated on Tax Day were nonpartisan calls to roll back pork hold the line on taxing and spending end the endless government bailouts and stop the congressional steamrollers that pushed through mountains of legislation without deliberation.
This is a teachable moment for GOP public-relations peddlers in Washington. While they search for the Holy Grail of Re-branding in tony salons and country club conferences the agenda for 2010 is smacking them in the face the three Ts of Too Many Taxes Trillions in Debt and Transparency.
The GOP path to reclaiming power lies with candidates who can make a credible case theyll support fiscal responsibility. That means acting on fiscal-conservative principles now not paying lip service later.
The reckonable forces of the Tea Party movement didnt let opportunists escape accountability on Tax Day. The GOP shouldnt assume theyll get a pass on Election Day either. As one of the most popular Tea Party signs read: You cant fix stupid but you can vote it out.
Lets use liberal math to calculate attendance at last weeks nationwide Tax Day Tea Party protests.
When left-wing activists make crowd estimates the algorithm is: six figures = one million. An incomplete survey of newspaper accounts and organizer estimates pegged the Tea Party protest population at a minimum of 250000. We can now therefore officially call it the Million Taxpayer March.
Or the Million Right-Wing Extremists March if you work for the Department of Homeland Security.
To George Soros-funded grievance professionals 250000 is an insignificant number. But unlike recent anti-war and pro-illegal-immigration rallies padded with union workers college students and homeless people the Tax Day Tea Party demonstrations featured small-business owners working taxpayers and families.
This wasnt a weekend or holiday mind you. A quarter-million people took time off in the middle of the workweek to raise their voices against reckless taxing and bipartisan spending.
Multimillionaire jet-setter Nancy Pelosi scoffed that the Tax Day Tea Party movement was nothing more than Astroturf politics to protect the wealthiest people. Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky called the peaceable assemblies despicable.
Other Tea Party-bashers grumbled that activists only showed up where Fox News cameras were. But tens of thousands more came out in rain snow and cold in Bozeman Mont.; Eau Claire Wis.; Carson City Nev.; White Plains N.Y.; Bend Ore.; Lansing Mich.; Hilo Hawaii; Nashville Tenn. and everywhere in between with no media personalities or celebrities in sight.
If only the condescending cable TV anchors at CNN and MSNBC had paused from wallowing in gutter puns about tea bags they might have reported an even more significant phenomenon: Tea Party protesters were as vocal in their criticism of Republicans as they were of Democrats.
In Salt Lake City a crowd of 2000 repeatedly booed GOP Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett who both supported the $700 billion TARP bailout and protested GOP Gov. Jon Huntsmans decision to accept $1.6 billion in porky stimulus funds.
In Sacramento Tea Party organizer Mark Meckler singled out California GOP Chair Ron Nehring for waffling on proposed $16 billion tax hikes. The crowd of 5000 greeted Nehring who unsuccessfully tried to hitch his wagon to the Tea Party movement with a roar of boos and catcalls.
Speaker after speaker lambasted Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for abandoning fiscal-conservative principles. The loudest chant of the day: Throw them out.
In Madison Wis. GOP Rep. Paul Ryan hyped as a conservative rock star was well received. But I heard from staunch fiscal-conservative constituents who refused to be silent about Ryans complicity in the rush to pass TARP last fall and his votes for the auto bailout and the Barney Frank-Nancy Pelosi AIG bonus-bashing stampede.
Milwaukee blogger Nick Schweitzer wrote: He ought to be apologizing for his previous votes not pretending he was being responsible the entire time but I dont see one bit of regret for what he did previously.
Other Tea Party participants pointed out that Newt Gingrich who jumped aboard the bandwagon flip-flopped on TARP in the space of a week last September and made cause with Al Gore and Pelosi in ads calling for action on climate change.
Before the Tea Party movement took them by surprise Beltway strategists argued the GOPs traditional focus on taxes and spending had become outdated. The re-branders pitched their own ideas to replace the anti-tax-and-spend agenda and inspire new voters. They included Gingrichs green conservatism David Frums proposal to raise carbon taxes and open-borders Republicans plans for new forms of amnesty.
Eco-zealotry and in-state tuition discounts for illegal aliens didnt bring out thousands of first-time activists. Stay-at-home moms werent up all night making signs that read Tax me more please!
What resonated on Tax Day were nonpartisan calls to roll back pork hold the line on taxing and spending end the endless government bailouts and stop the congressional steamrollers that pushed through mountains of legislation without deliberation.
This is a teachable moment for GOP public-relations peddlers in Washington. While they search for the Holy Grail of Re-branding in tony salons and country club conferences the agenda for 2010 is smacking them in the face the three Ts of Too Many Taxes Trillions in Debt and Transparency.
The GOP path to reclaiming power lies with candidates who can make a credible case theyll support fiscal responsibility. That means acting on fiscal-conservative principles now not paying lip service later.
The reckonable forces of the Tea Party movement didnt let opportunists escape accountability on Tax Day. The GOP shouldnt assume theyll get a pass on Election Day either. As one of the most popular Tea Party signs read: You cant fix stupid but you can vote it out.
