A TEA PARTY IN GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA: “Mike Miller brought his young daughter downtown Friday night to the “Greenville Tea Party” rally at the RiverPlace complex, as the Upstate Young Republicans and others protested the government spending in President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan. They weren’t alone. A crowd estimated at 800 to 2,000 people took part in a loud hourlong rally, one of an estimated 60 around the country.”
Plus, a roundup from around the country.
Despite terrible weather in many cases, citizens braved the wind, cold, and rain to exercise their Constitutional right to protest the current direction of the country under Barack Obama and the Democrats.
In St. Louis, over 1500 attended the Tea Party at the famous arch.In Chicago, between 800 and 1000 braved the bad weather to gather to protest the massive spending of taxpayers’ money by the federal government.
Atlanta was the site of another well-attended Tea Party.
Many smaller towns and cities participated in the semi-simultaneous events around the country, such as Shelby, Alabama, Asheville, North Carolina, and Greenville, South Carolina.
Stay tuned.
UPDATE: Reader Kaye Evans writes:
You have posted pictures of the Nashville Tea Party gathering at the Legislative Plaza on February 26, and there was much to be learned from the folks who came out on that rainy day.
I was there and spent more time studying the assembled crowd than listening to the speakers. I was struck by how the crowd grew throughout the lunch hour. Many I spoke with had traveled to be a part of the protest.
It was glaringly obvious that these folks were not the $250+K fat cats whom Obama castigates. These people represented the middle class who, ostensibly, will be “helped” by the stimulus spending bills. They clearly were not convinced; they were angered by the class warfare components of his economic policies and the awareness that the burden of his ruinous spending will eventually become theirs to bear.
On a related note, may I suggest an appropriate coda for the New American Tea Party?
In 1835 Alexis de Tocqueville cautioned, “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”
I think we’ll see more people upset about this as time passes.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Here are a couple of pictures from the Sarasota Tea Party. More on that here.
And here’s TV coverage from Neil Cavuto.
And reader Miles Wilson says don’t give Rick Santelli too much credit: “Just wanted to remind you that the Rick Santelli ‘rant’ was not the genesis of this movement – in fact, at least four events (Seattle, Denver, Mesa, Overland Park) occurred before the coining of the term ‘tea party’. So credit where credit is due – to the grassroots organizers far from the madding media crowd.”
(Had it as “Mike” Wilson earlier; sorry for the error.}