Tea Party in VB
By Georgie Gale | Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 | PolicyHundreds of people came out today in the rain and cold to Virginia Beach’s Town Center to peacefully protest the federal government’s out of control spending and budget deficits. A parade of speakers and music entertained the crowd, which was awash with red, white and blue hats, shirts and flags. Homemade signs proudly waved as the crowd broke out in spontaneous chants of “U-S-A” and “Freedom, Freedom!”
I have to admit, I didn’t take it seriously when I heard about the Tax Day Tea Parties that were being organized around the country. I thought, it’s going to be a handful of bitter, right-wing extremists out to gripe about the President. But it turned out to be more than that. Today was about showing pride in country and the values that are often forgotten inside the Beltway. It was about being a participant in an event geared to make a statement – don’t forget the citizens, Washington. In your hurry to try to solve the world’s problems, don’t forget what we stand for and what we want.
People of all ages from all background and all political beliefs were there today. Granted, the conservatives probably outnumbered everybody else, but this was no radical, screaming mob. This was a group of patriotic Americans who by their presence were saying that they weren’t ready to give up on our country or our government.
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26 Responses to "Tea Party in VB"
While the turn out might have been colorful, it does not seem like it was much of a turn out. But even the minority deserves the right to demonstrate.
LD: If it had been 1/3 as many liberals it would have been trumpeted across the media as a major movement.
Remember it was cold, rainy and in the middle of a work week. Most conservatives have jobs. . .
Dry Viking,
Sorry, it is called fizzle. The main stream media has been reporting on this event and if they report honestly they will report on the lack luster participation.
Little David,
You would have criticized the turnout if a million people had turned out. Thousands of people showed up to protest a federal government that is set to raise their taxes, push government control over private business, continue the corruption that is typical, and push liberal “values” down the throats of the American populous. The people have had enough. You may have supported Obama, but that does not change the fact that he has done a lousy job.
The people are rising up against the “chains we can believe in.”
Steven Osbourne,
The picture I saw showed a few dozen. Thousands might be accurate for the national turn out but not millions.
I might have been impressed if the turnout was millions. But it seems the turn out was a fizzle. This limited turnout was in the face of concerted effort by both secular and religious outlets to encourage it.
Let the minority demonstrate. Let the majority rule.
The Tea Party ROCKED! Tell me the last time that many people stood up for the future and tell government they are pissed in Va beach!
Don’t Tread On Me,
I seem to recall a very large and very peaceful crowd of people that convened on Mount Trashmore in observance of gay rights that I happened upon by chance (I was attempting to fly kites with my kids). This rather large gathering was also under covered by the media.
Are we going to observe the demonstrations or are we going to observe the ballot?
Is the only time you have a problem with the media is when it fails to cover your minority gathering? Other minorities have equal complaints.
Over 5000 people showed up in Richmond!!!
I know that I’m pretty ticked off about the Bush tax rates!!! Urgh!!! I know myself and the other 95% of the people in America getting a tax break are so upset at this government that’s been in power for a little over two months. I have soooo much anger. I know there was an election just a little over 5 months ago that would help us determine the direction of this country, but those elections were totally bogus. I know that I’ve been so oppressed that I wish we had these teabag parties for the last 8 years!!!!
Kevin, your sarcasm aside, I agree with you. George Bush in his second term was a Big Gvornment socialist. The difference between him and a Democrat was that he wore his religion on his sleeve and had an agressive foreign policy. Well, also that he had a different letter after his name. I loved the guy in his first term, the second was gravely disappointing.
You are correct that Obama has only just been elected, However, Obama has brought rapid “change”. That change being growing government and exacerbating our financial crisis faster than even Bush could(which I find mind boggling). Yes, it is early to pass judgement on Obama but, his fast start doesn’t hold much promise for Free markets.
These Tea Parties are protests against excessive taxation to be sure but, perhaps more so against the bailouts and massively growing spending/government. This isn’t about Obama. At least not yet. That’s up to his future actions.
i know this is on tax day, so the media is reporting them as tax protests… and sure that may be part of it… but to the extent that people do have anger and are upset, I think it has much more to do with exploding deficit spending, bailouts, and huge increases in government control.
Obama is doing a great job picking up where bush left off. Meet the new boss… same as the old one.
I do applaud the peaceful protests being done as that is the very example of responsible use of freedom of speech.
However, that said… I want to ask those who participated or just believe strongly in this “tea party” process… what’s the significance of calling it “tea party” since the complaint over government spending has nothing to do with the Boston Tea Party?
[...] Bearing Drift Georgie Gale provided great coverage of the Virginia Beach tea party with pictures. [...]
“Tell me the last time that many people stood up for the future and tell government they are pissed in Va beach!”
I believe 18,000 people showed up for the Obama rally in Virginia Beach. Twice. Just sayin.
What is lost on the Tea Party’s detractors is they maintain (and I believe, fervently hope) the events on 15 April were the beginning and end of it. They need to believe that to calm themselves against the true fact this is only the beginning. The Tea Party movement is merely in its nascent stages. The lamestream media and their masters in the democrat party know this… and they’re acting on it. Note the dismissive descriptions, the outlandishly low crowd estimates, and above all… DHS’ Janet Napolitano’s “warning” about “right-wing extremists.” The left in this country knows it has overreached. I say, please continue to denigrate and discount us. And as for the politicians — ignore us at your political peril.
We drew more than 1,000 yesterday. Wait until those events are held on weekends in warm weather. By summer, we’ll be in the tens of thousands per event. The DNC and media will REALLY be squirming over that.
It was inspiring and a good sign that Patriots still exists to fight for our Republic.
I wonder if the companies that lost hours, if not days, of productivity due to unmanned workforce will feel as inspired.
Kinda ironic that people so concerned over wasteful spending of government tax dollars didn’t have a problem with their employers losing money for the time off work.
Oh my goodness, what an incredibly silly comment.
Ever heard of sick days? Vacation time? Days off?
Generally those things are part of an employers compensation package to the employee. I would imagine very few, if any, of those folks out there yesterday missed time that wasn’t already part of their benefits.
Of course, folks who are living off the government might not understand the above concept.
But you have to admit the hypocrisy is pretty funny. I mean for anyone to be at a protest regarding anger over wasteful spending, only to themselves be a contributor to wasteful spending… wow.
Besides, to use a sick day to go twirl a tea bag isn’t much of a work ethic.
To those who are upset about government spending, I agree, the spending is literally insane. We hear government leaders toss around words like “billions” or “trillions” as if they were trivial words, and yes that is a frightening aspect.
But, so too is a crumbled, decaying economy. I don’t know whether Obama’s team has the right strategy, after all, billions thrown at banks who didn’t know what they were investing in to begin with goes to that insanity I was mentioning earlier. But let’s not kid ourselves.. we are all betting that he’s going to be right. Because if he’s not, the alternative isn’t pretty.
Shane, that’s what you call funny?
No wonder TV sitcoms stink nowadays.
Gee, I dunno Shane. Seems to me that when your business depends on a healthy economy you might want to have your employees out on the street letting the government know that insane spending and putting the country in unsustainable debt isn’t appreciated. If you work for a bank that is forced to compete with zombie financial institutions that only function due to government bailouts…….you might be happy to pay your employees vacation time.
In the end, if the government ever gets a clue, business will see gains as a result that more than make up for any loss of production.
I won’t normally do this but, I have more photos of the Virginia Beach Tea Party up on the site I help write for.
Some of the shots show the crowd size a bit better. Also, there is some cute shots of young patriots that will inherit our national debt.
Just click on the link on my post name here and scroll down about two articles when you get to TidewaterLiberty.
Good grief! I took one of my vacation days to attend the tea party! Why did I have to do that? Because I WORK for a living – and I pay the taxes that are being frittered away but all levels of out of touch government!
[...] Bearing Drift Georgie Gale provided great coverage of the Virginia Beach tea party with pictures. [...]
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