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Tomorrow I will join thousands of Americans in protesting continued fiscal irresponsibility by our government. The desire for fiscal responsibility is neither conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat; it is what it is and to view it otherwise is to make it a partisan issue. It's not a partisan issue, it's an American issue.
There is a lot of misinformation out there about why we are taking to the streets; as one of the national sponsors and as an organizer who's been involved since its inception, I wanted to address some of that.
I am not a billionaire, nor am I funded by billionaires. Were this accusation true I would be wearing a rhinestone-encrusted beltbuckle with the words THA BOSS plated across the center. Clearly this charge is false because a) I do not have said belt buckle b) we paid for our permits by scraping change out of the couch cushions and with donations made by everyday citizens.
I am not a GOP hack. I'm not going to bash the GOP; I realize that they are our biggest champions of conservative principles in Washington. However, take this as caring criticism when I say that their recent jump onto our coattails was not exactly welcome. The Tea Party protest is a movement started by nets/grassroots activists. By the people and for the people. It makes no sense to involve the GOP because it was on their watch that the Wall Street bailout passed. I only like irony in the comedic sense.
Myself and my fellow organizers are not members of groups like Freedom Works or Newt Gingrich's American Solutions Project. These groups (except perhaps for a protest in Florida organized by Freedom Works, I believe) tacked themselves on to the movement after it had momentum. Gingrich may be a mastermind strategist, but if he thinks he's opaque enough to hide his posturing for a possible 2012 bid he's missed his mark.
I fully realize that me saying this or even attempting to be honest about any political party will cost me valuable points and prizes from those who accept only salacious butt-kissing and those people can, quite bluntly, bite me. I refuse to be manipulated. Period. /digression
These protests are also not "hate Obama" rallies. Please. If you truly believe that we would not be in the streets if this were President McCain making these decisions and not President Obama, then I have a bridge to sell you. Seriously. You will never find another deal on a bridge like this.
We are not "extremists." Just yesterday evening a network affiliate mischaracterized me and my co-organizer by analogizing us to the worst kind of kooky extremists and didn't bother to contact us to ask us anything about a story he was doing. On us. This isn't the first hit job I've taken by shoddy journalists and it won't be the last, but it does aggravate me that someone would attempt to suppress turnout by likening those who show up to protest fiscal waste to extremists or neo-Nazis. It's irresponsible and intellectually dishonest.
Since when did political dissent become unpatriotic? (The Anchoress has a brilliant piece on this, by the way.)
So why exactly are we protesting? We're protesting the tripling of the deficit and the forthcoming taxes to offset that. Kiss that $13 dollars-a-week "cut" goodbye - especially when programs like cap-and-trade go into effect and the price of energy skyrockets and gobbles up your little bit of pocket money. We're protesting the massive increase in government's size; the incessant federal meddling in the private sector. Mostly we're protesting fiscal irresponsibility and all that which it brings, as detailed.
That's why we're protesting. We're not expecting to enact change overnight, but we want Democrats to know that we do not like the current course; we want Republicans to know that we will hold their feet to the fire if they don't block increased spending; we want all legislators to know that they have until 2010 to get it together. As for the every citizen, we hope that they realize that it is NOT unpatriotic to ask that government spend responsibly, that it's NOT hateful to criticize the president (I can guarantee you that you won't see the sort of offensive effigies and signs at these protests that we've seen at some anti-Bush rallies ). We want them to realize that our government is overreaching and exceeding its purpose.
As the Constitutional Convention drew to a close in 1787, a Mrs. Powel approached Benjamin Franklin as
