I also swung by the Tea Party protest over on the House side on Sunday.
The Tea Party protest was much rowdier and much less organized than Saturday's anti-war rally.
Compared to the anti-war rally, there were no mass-produced signs being passed out to everyone, there were no signs of "professional" activists or "community organizers," no staged photo ops, no charter buses bringing folks in from other cities, and things felt much more...organic. I didn't see any signs of "astroturf," instead I was surprised by how chaotic things were. I would also note, I didn't see or hear any racist or bigoted comments like those reported from Saturday's larger Tea Party protest.
While the Tea Party definitely felt like true grassroots, the elites, aka Republican Members of Congress, did try to get in on the action. I saw Reps. Michele Bachmann, Steve King, Jean Schmidt, and (I think) Joe Wilson all speaking to the adoring crowds, often whipping them into a frenzy.
You can see the rest of my Tea Party pictures here.
0 comments:
Post a Comment