Andrée Seu Peterson on the "Time" cover 
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Partying like it’s 1773
I’ve never been much of a political activist. OK, scratch that—I’ve never been a political activist, period. About all the protesting I’ve ever done has been in front of the TV, and with the crazy amount of money being sanctioned as OK to spend lately, I’ve been doing my fair share of yelling at the television.
That’s why, when I heard of the Nationwide Tea Party Protest and that there would be a version of it in St. Louis, I knew I had to go. My girls and I have been studying American History this year, and since we learned about the Boston Tea Party, I knew I would be a homeschooling idiot to not take advantage of this prime teachable moment.
According to the #TCOT Report, I wasn’t the only one: Citizens in 50 cities participated in the nationwide protest against government (over)spending, and more than 25,000 people showed up at the tea parties yesterday.
Bill Hennessey, author and a conservative blogger in St. Louis, heard about the tea parties and organized one for our city. Word went out through local blogs and light television coverage. Bill expected 50 people to show up; estimates are that 1,000 did.
As my husband is a full-time teacher, I went with my girls. The main thing I wanted them to experience was that, though we disagree with the direction the government is taking us right now, we live in a country where we have the right to assemble regardless. We can meet together, we can voice our complaint, and we can try to do something—anything—about it. I made sure my girls knew there were places around the world where this right isn’t guaranteed, and after seeing those thousand people, the lesson wasn’t lost on them.
After the rally at the foot of the Arch, we went over to the river and “dumped” tea into it, symbolic of the colonists of 1773. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as I imagine the original one was in 1773, but the spirit was certainly the same.
Do I think anyone in Washington really cares what we did yesterday? I don’t know. But I saw how easy it is to actually do something instead of sit at home on my duff waiting for someone else to do it for me. Maybe one day, instead of yelling at the television, I’ll be on it . . . or my kids will be . . . fighting with the freedom others fought for on our behalf.
back to top21 Comments to “Partying like it’s 1773”
I really hate to tell you Megan, but I didn’t even KNOW it was happening.
The link says it was held in Greenville, SC with 2000 attending, but I didn’t see it on the Channel 4 news.
I’m afraid Washington doesn’t know about it and doesn’t care.
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Unfortunately, I never heard about it either. But talk show host, Jason Lewis, has been hosting “Tax Cut Rallies”, with thousands in attendance every year for the last couple years, and our local Minnesota media never catches them either.
Call me crazy, but I think that some media organizations only want to report the news that benefits their agenda.
When 10 protesters take on a Republican, it seems like they get the feature story, but when three to five thousand people march on the capital to tell them to quit enslaving them with new taxes, it does not even get reported.
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In 1773, the tea was connected to the issue being protested … a tariff on tea that Britain imposed on the colonies while allowing them no representation in the government that levied it.
Dumping tea into water to protest things that are not in any way connected to tea, and from states that do have representation in Congress, seems a little less well-targeted.
However, I can promise you that your elected representatives do care what the people who have the power to re-elect them or send them home think … as long as the numbers are enough to have an impact on election day.
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When 10 protesters take on a Republican, it seems like they get the feature story, but when three to five thousand people march on the capital to tell them to quit enslaving them with new taxes, it does not even get reported.
If you really believe that, you are indeed crazy.
Once again, we see the media blindness phenomenon. Your eyes go to every item possible that you think you can argue supports your claim of “liberal bias,” and you simply do not notice those items that undercut your argument, so you can keep arguing that the media doesn’t cover this or that.
What’s really funny, and you see it here occasonally, is when someone complains that “the media would never cover this!” and then links to an item in the New York Times or the Washington Post or from one of the wire services (AP, Reuters, etc.) for information on whatever it is they’re supposedly not covering.
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SteveG, you don’t need to puff up your arguments by calling people crazy. It’s kind of hard not to believe something that you saw with your own eyes.
The problem with liberals, such as yourself, is that any time that a conservative rightfully cries bias, you ideologues come back with “you must be crazy, people don’t have a bias.”
Open up your eyes SteveG, if you can’t see that there is a serious bias in the media, you must not be thinking objectively. You can’t just discredit other people’s perceptions because it does not benefit your political class’s world view.
In regards to your comment on the “media would not cover this”, you have to look beyond the fact that they “published” it. Oftentimes conservative bloggers link to something that was found in the online edition only.
Oftentimes, these stories are only published by one news organization, and if it had not been for conservative bloggers, the story would have never gotten out. Your logic fails in that we are not saying that the media only publishes liberal news. We are just saying that it is the exception, not the rule, when news organizations give a fair take on a conservative news story.
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Terry: SteveG, you don’t need to puff up your arguments by calling people crazy.
Umm .. you said in #2: Call me crazy, but I think that some media organizations only want to report the news that benefits their agenda.
I just did as you asked.
(It really was meant as humor.)
Your logic fails in that we are not saying that the media only publishes liberal news. We are just saying that it is the exception, not the rule, when news organizations give a fair take on a conservative news story.
OK, but I still don’t believe it. This is an area I pay attention to out of both personal and professional interest, and I have never seen a convincing objective study that confirms this claim. I think the opposite has actually been true for some time.
So if you have some evidence of this, show me where it is. I am sure you can find plenty of anecdotal examples, and I can find plenty of anecdotal examples that show the opposite. What objective, quantitative studies exist that demonstrate what you say?
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Dumping tea today is reminds us how the Revolution got started. The people didn’t want to take it anymore. There is no need for it to be tea-related today as it is symbolic. Sorry the symbolism missed the brains of some people.
Wasn’t there a campaign years ago to send in teabags to the Congress. We should do that again and hold more of these little protests across the country. I give these people credit for thinking of it, and if the MSM doesn’t want to cover it, it should be spread via the internet.
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The problem with the anti-tax movement is that they’re always talking about how taxes are evil. Without taxes you wouldn’t have roads, police, ambulances, hospitals, fire stations, water, electricity, airports, street lights, garbage pick-up, sewer systems, schools, parks, libraries, sidewalks, national intelligence and defense, a standing army, railroads, dams, bridges, drug and food safety, border control, air traffic control, flood control, and all the other things that makes living in this country so wonderful. People are always complaining about taxes, but they’re the first to scream if a road is full of pot holes or their neighborhood park was shut down.
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Anlir, I don’t think most of mind paying for the things that you mention. In fact, we would like to see more money going to some of them. If Congress only spent money for such things as these, our infrastrure would be in great shape and we would have more money in our pockets to boot. And difficult as it is to imagine, government might just be following more along the lines of the original framers! It could even be argued that we wouldn’t be in the current mess we are in either!!
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#6 Steve G
“What objective, quantitative studies exist that demonstrate what you say?”
We conservatives are still waiting for those “objective, quantitative studies” that show that Keynesian stimulus works.
Has Krugman done any?
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Keynesian economics formed the basis for economic policy from the 40s to the early 70s. A period that saw the greatest expansion of the middle class in history and the longest sustained period of prosperity. From the late 70s to the present we have operated under Friedman and the Chicago boys. In this period we have seen a boom bust economy and the largest gap between the rich and poor since the guilded age.
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“Dumping tea into water to protest things that are not in any way connected to tea, and from states that do have representation in Congress, seems a little less well-targeted.”
Yeah, I think they should have dumped a bunch of derivatives in the water instead….
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#11 HRW
Where are those vaunted “objective, quantitative studies?”
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Like all relativists, he can say they exist because he says they do.
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“OK, but I still don’t believe it. This is an area I pay attention to out of both personal and professional interest, and I have never seen a convincing objective study that confirms this claim. I think the opposite has actually been true for some time.”
First, can we please dispense with the silly notion that just because a story got “coverage” that the press is NOT biased? Every time a conservative says that the coverage was biased, the liberals in this crowd stands up and says: “Look! Such and such a media person covered that issue. The media is not biased, and this proves it!” (As if.) Please. Don’t insult our intelligence with such a pathetic argument. If I hear that one more time, I’m going to throw up right here on the blog.
Secondly, do you only believe in things that there is a “convincing study that confirms” whatever is at issue? For instance, do you have to have a study to confirm that there’s a difference between men and women? They’ve done studies on that too….
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The revolt that I posted on this blog last Friday was started in 40 cities spontaneously involving thousand of people. I remarked at the time that I didn’t even know this was happening because the DNC had told the MSM to ‘Black it out’ and not cover it because it was the left, Obama and the democrats in congress, on the receiving end of the protests. Can’t have a revolution against the messiah adn his revolutionaries no can we? – so gouache you know.
Fox News did cover it but only on Greta Van Susterin’s show. None of the MSM did so. It doesn’t matter. Come sometime we will be rioting in the streets like it is 1969 as our net worth is confiscated by criminals, thugs and other anti Ameicans of all stripes. You haven,t seenanything yet.
Obama and the entire left has declared war on the rich, capitalism and America with Obama saying ‘bring it on’ in true George Bush style. We will respond in kind. They are scared to death and they should be because this will get out of control very quickly and we will be taking heads like the Turks and Rocks took ears and noses in Nam
See ya on the chain gang
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Make It Man: First, can we please dispense with the silly notion that just because a story got “coverage” that the press is NOT biased? Every time a conservative says that the coverage was biased, the liberals in this crowd stands up and says: “Look! Such and such a media person covered that issue. The media is not biased, and this proves it!” (As if.) Please. Don’t insult our intelligence with such a pathetic argument. If I hear that one more time, I’m going to throw up right here on the blog.
Eww.
OK, but on the other hand, conservatives are constantly trotting out this story or that one about something that, in their opinion, was liberally biased and saying “Look! This article portrays the liberal view in a good light. The media IS biased, and this proves it!”
This is why I ask for analysis. It is possible to find anecdotes that support both positions. But anecdotes, as you know, don’t prove a trend.
Secondly, do you only believe in things that there is a “convincing study that confirms” whatever is at issue? For instance, do you have to have a study to confirm that there’s a difference between men and women? They’ve done studies on that too….
Oh please. Obviously there are many things for which no studies are needed (or possible.) They are self-evident. The alleged bias of the media is NOT self-evident. There are examples that it is biased left, and there are examples that it is biased right and examples that it is not biased at all, and to really know which of those reflects the overall trend would require an objective study.
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“Look! This article portrays the liberal view in a good light. The media IS biased, and this proves it!”
Actually…
It’s more like:
“These seventy five different articles portray this conservative in a very bad light. And you have to wipe the slobber off of those two hundred articles just so you can read what that journalist wrote about Obama. The media is biased and this proves it.”
It got so bad during the election that longtime journalists, and even liberal journalists were crying “foul”!
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13
Bob/MIM
I provided historical context not the objective quantifiable studies you asked for. Models and studies outside of a historical context are rarely applicable in real life.
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#18. OK. Just show me the study that confirms that kind of disparity, not anecdotes and “everybody knows” declarations, and I’ll check it out.
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Ah, yes…the libs and the connies go at it again. You partisans are blind to the fact that such bickering and pom-pom waving just plays into the hands of demagogues; does nothing to advance liberty or any other cause.
For those who want to actually DO something: this Independence Day, in up to 535 cities and towns, we are going to turn the present system on its ear legally and peacefully.
Interested? Go to this link, read the Declaration, and at the bottom you’ll find suggestions on how to run your local Independence Day rally.
And for God’s sake, stop bickering.
http://www.america-again.blogspot.com
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