Make no mistake … this is grass roots

The Tea Parties planned in Connecticut and around the country have finally caught the attention of the MSM. And why not? They were supposed to fade away after the first round in March. They were supposed to be just a flash in the pan … a momentary blip on the radar screen … a small group of angry right wing nuts that would disappear as soon as they worked off their frustrations with Hope n’ Change. But they haven’t and they won’t.

So now they are under assault. CNN, MSNBC and their ilk in the newspapers are trying to frame them as either Republican run demonstrations (the invisible hand of the “Right Wing Conspiracy”) or a controlled media event by Fox News. Or dismiss them entirely as in this Cavuto smackdown:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDmIp47_zFQ

Today Glenn Reynolds has an column in the NY Post concerning the grass roots nature of the tea party and how it is joined by Democrats and Republicans, libertarians and liberalatarians who have had enough.

Then organizers — really, just people discussing things on Twitter, blogs and chatboards — decided that Tax Day, April 15, would be the perfect day for a coordinated national day of protest. Online lists of protests (such as taxdayteaparty.com) predict 300 to 500 marches on Wednesday all across the country.

Now that the movement looks likely to be big and successful, various established groups (mostly on the right, though a lefty counterpart will march this weekend) are getting involved. But its genesis and enthusiasm are pure grassroots: a lot of people who’ve had enough, brought together by the power of the Web.

No doubt they’ll be dismissed by chin-pullers in the Big Media (the same folks who sent more reporters than there were protesters to a staged ACORN protest over AIG bonuses), but these Tea Party protests aren’t the same old rituals with the same old marchers.

These aren’t the usual semiprofessional protesters who attend antiwar and pro-union marches. These are people with real jobs; most have never attended a protest march before. They represent a kind of energy that our politics hasn’t seen lately, and an influx of new activists.

For more on Tea Party push back from the left just scroll through Glenn’s site.

For more information on Connecticut’s Tea Parties click here.

Update: (Steve) Smears and more smears concerning the Tea Parties scheduled around the country for April 15. I thought they were all for peaceful protests? They are, except when it does not fit their own agenda. In that case they lie about them and even imply we are racists, since there are so few people of color at Tea Parties.

It’s always about race. … need to throw a race card to change the subject and scare people away.

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Jim Vicevich

Jim is a veteran broadcaster and conservative/libertarian blogger with more than 25 years experience in TV and radio. Jim's was the long-term host of The Jim Vicevich Show on WTIC 1080 in Hartford from 2004 through 2019. Prior to radio, Jim worked as a business and financial reporter for NBC30 - the NBC owned TV station in Hartford - and as business editor at WFSB-TV in Hartford for 14 years while earning six Emmy nominations and three Telly Awards.

5 Comments

  1. Katie Cullen on April 13, 2009 at 2:51 am

    For those of us who can't be at the tea party – what can we do to add to the protest?



  2. Lazybum on April 13, 2009 at 5:50 am

    Tell the sleeping public that it is happening. If it is on TV News, point out to others if the coverage is accurate or biased. If it is not covered by your local TV station, ask your friends why not, ask the TV station why not. Make everyone aware!



  3. Dimsdale on April 14, 2009 at 5:05 am

    When I think of all the staged lefty events, by ACORN, George Soros, and the communist ANSWER group, to name a few, I have to realize that the neosocialist Democrats are dealing in projection.



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