Colorado Springs Tea Party Produces Good Turnout
Grassroots Efforts Begin for 2012
There were lots of people gathered in the park, though not full, it was lively. The protest started with music from a local band. They played "Proud to be an American". The audience sang along and cheered when the band was through.
Richard Randall a local talk show host at KVOR, was the first speaker . He was very forceful when he said, "There are people who in Washington who are deciding how to spend our taxes when they don't even pay their taxes... and they wonder why we're angry?" Cheers erupted from the crowd.
Randall talked about taxes and big government and continued to get cheers on every statement. One woman in the crowd was shouting, I couldn't hear what she said, but Randall commented that it wasn't right to interrupt the protest. There weren't anymore outbursts during the "tea party".
The demographics of the protest seemed to be largely middle age men and women, to seniors. There were mothers and fathers with small children. Students from the adjacent Palmer Park High School came over during their lunch break to check out the events as well. The different signs was really the most interesting to me. There were signs that said, "We the people want our country back". The sign with the coiled snake saying, "Don't Tread On Me". I even saw one that said, "Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Ron Paul". You can check out some of those at: http://www.associatedcontent.com/slideshow/15403/colorado_springs_tea_party_on_tax_day.html?cat=75
It was clear that people feel strongly about these issues. They expressed all of the things that we are hearing everyday, on those signs. There were people carrying American Flags, wearing American Flags and dressing their dogs and children in American Flags.
The 2 hour long protest carried on with the Singing of the National Anthem and quite a few more Speakers. Congressman Doug Lamborn also spoke. Each speaker that came to the podium had a story. One speaker was a local business owner. When he said he had been paying the government for over 30 years in taxes and he was tired of it, the crowd went wild again.
The entire "Tea Party" seemed to be very positive. None of the speakers advocated anything but total lawful and peaceful processes for change to the things they don't agree with in our government. They did seem to blame Obama for most of the current ills occurring. Some of the signs said, "Are You Listening Obama?"
It seems the bigger picture here is forming a New Republican Base. A Grassroots type movement to be prepared for 2012. It is being backed by folks like Michelle Malkin and others. You can check out the sponsors of the local effort and some other info at: http://taxdayteaparty.com/teaparty/colorado/ .
Published by Rose Richmond
Journalism, Freelance Writing. View profile
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11 Comments
Post a CommentIt's not a Republican movement; I think this is the thing the left (establishment) just doesn't get! We're not only fed up with Democrats in Congress who don't listen, we're fed up with Republicans who have fed at the trough of Big-Government for long enough, too!
I agree Rich
The tea party was just a display of hypocrisy. Republicans ran Congress for 12 years, and the government for 8, and borrowed and spent recklessly through that entire period. It's shameless to suddenly "find" their principles after running the economy into the ground and being kicked out of power.
"It seems the bigger picture here is forming the New Republican Base" was supposed to be italicized. All formatting was stripped. :( And I got cut off. I wanted to say that the more consistently you subscribe to a limited-government philosophy, the less relevant the left-right spectrum is. http://theadvocates.org/quiz
It seems the bigger picture here is forming a New Republican Base.
The Libertarians were organizing the tax day tea party protests before high-profile Republicans (many of whom are obvious hypocrites) jumped on the bandwagon. In fact, the Libertarians have been organizing these tax day protests for the last 20 years.
It's clear that there's a strong movement to reform the Republican party in accordance with its traditional, fiscally responsible, small-government principles (that few party politicians have abided by, despite giving them lip-service), but anyone who characterizes the "tea parties" and the growing discontent they symbolize as partisan is kind of missing the point.
Anti-statist is not synonymous with Republican. There's a libertarian caucus within the Democratic party, and of course the Libertarian Party. There's even a Boston Tea Party (political party). The more consistently you subscribe to a limited-government philosophy, the less relevant the left-right s
Hi, Rose! Keep on keeping on!
Should have said one of only 13 in the state Sorry about that
Sorry about the listings for Colorado...I am wondering though why your second comment was so inflammatory? I just went to the rally to cover it. I think I was fair. I don't agree with blaming everything on Obama. I think that is an excuse. Obama didn't start it and all of the Republicans, didn't know how to fix it when they had the chance, so....Would you scream no when you can't afford your cell phone or nice car because the Government NOW just let the country fail and let the chips fall where they may. People want to apply standards of the Boston Tea Party to todays economic climate. It is just silly. Agree to disagree. Do what you feel is right. I was just covering the story.
It doesn't matter what you make when taxes are going up on everything from cigarettes to marriage licenses. We are going to be paying a huge tax called inflation within 18 months. Had the government asked us if we were willing to pay a 30% tax increase, we would have all screamed no. However, by printing money without anything backing it, our money will we worth 30% less. Same thing accomplished. Where do YOU think the money is coming from?
One of three tea parties in Colorado? Are you kidding me? There were 13 in Colorado alone. Ft. Collins, Denver and CO Springs were the largest but please don't forget the rest of the state. They are important too!