My First Tea Party

For most of my life I have been less than passionate about politics. I probably would have been more enthusiastic about the subject if I did not believe that politics is usually an exercise in futility. And for sheer spectacle, I could find dozens of activities that were more interesting.

But desperate times bring desperate people. Talk radio has replaced song and news sites have replaced spectator sports. I cannot remember the last time I watched a movie on DVD. It has been about a year since I attended a movie theater and about a year before that for my prior visit. But politics is still a new obsession for me.

I should not be surprised when I encounter an apolitical or unintersted person, but I am surprised. On March 31 at a few minutes before 11 PM I conversed with a co-worker, a nurse, about matters vaguely political. She surprised me by her comment, something to the effect that this country needs another tea party.

Knowing that this nurse was not particularly interested in current events, I asked her if she was familiar with the Tea Party movement. She had not even heard of it. This is a woman whose other job is at the Veteran's Administration and who sometimes forwards emails that one might expect from a VA employee. Recurring themes of patriotism and the decline of patriotism, the fate of veterans, the screwing of America. Emails with which I endorsed the sentiment, but not always the veracity. She was unaware of what is perhaps the biggest ongoing news story of the past year. I pointed her to Youtube and tea party protests. Her jaw dropped.

The next day I was conversing with a lady friend of mine. I asked her if she had heard of the Tea Party movement. She knew nothing about it. Nada.

These two events made me determined to attend a tea party. And of course, it seemed like a good place to sell a few bumper stickers in what has become a saturated market. Being that Sarah Palin drew over 10k in Boston the day before and the movement seemed to be snowballing, I arrived at Concord, New Hampshire more than an hour early for a noon rally on the State House lawn.

In a word, it was disappointing. I was expecting at least a thousand people and I had braced myself for larger numbers. I expected counter-demonstrators and lots of news media. It was a bright sunny day. The stars hidden in that big blue sky were aligning themselves. Or were they?

I would say that the crowd was about 100 people until noon when it doubled in size. By 12:30 it might have reached 300 people. This is a rough estimate by an untrained eye but it includes political candidates and their entourages, hucksters (t-shirts, bumper stickers) and advocacy groups. The actual crowd of unaffiliated protestors was probably about 150 people tops.

The plan was to sell a few bumper stickers, flirt with one of those chubby Libertarian chicks, eat a liesurely sandwich in God's sunshine and whisk myself away to an even livelier tea party that evening. I ended up swapping a few bumper stickers and gave a few away gratis. The chubby Libby Gals were not packing heat so that fetish went untriggered. It was a rained on parade minus the rain.

The sparse crowd did allow me to chat with candidates, probably much longer than they wanted to. They all gave me that Reagan meets Hinckley look but after I asked a few questions, they seemed to be at ease. I cannot tell you a lot about Ovide Lamontagne except to say that he is friendly, personable, cordial and charming. In other words, he laughed at my witticisms. I will be voting for him in the primaries for US Senate.

http://www.devinemillimet.com/attorneys/ovide-m-lamontagne/default.asp

I also chatted with Peter Bearse, candidate for Congress. He is a Harvard man but I don't hold that against him. He holds a Phd. in economics and is infinitely smarter than that lame-brained social worker who now holds the office. Oh, and he majored in math as an undergrad. A Congressman who can add numbers? We can dream, can't we?

http://www.peterbearseforcongress.com/

As Mr. Bearse managed to work Ronald Reagan into his own description, I asked him how a fiscal conservative could link himself to a president who ran a deficit every single year of his administration. He replied that it was essential for Reagan to re-establish our nation's defense that had been "left fallow for years."

I will vote for Mr. Bearse in the primaries.

That was my first tea party.