Activists Prepare For Tax Day Tea Party In East Bay
- April 14, 2010
On Thursday, supporters of the tea party movement in the Bay Area and around the nation were planning to stage their biggest rallies yet to mark Tax Day on April 15th.
On the eve of the Tea Party's big rally in the East Bay, wife, mother and founder of the Pleasanton Tea Party Bridget Melson seemed overwhelmed.
"We have 42 hours of work to do in 15, but God willing, we're going to get it done," she said.
Her children played on the stage where candidates such as Republican Carly Fiorina will campaign for the senate in front of Tea Party enthusiasts on Thursday.
Bridget's husband Mike Melson said he does not plan to affiliate himself with any party "...until either party straightens up and starts representing us."
Their seven-year-old son Lucas offered his own interpretation of what the Tea Party was, calling it "a big celebration or something to vote Obama out."
In Boston on Wednesday, the Tea Party rallied about a mile from where the original tea party in 1773 with Sarah Palin again urging those there to throw out liberal Democrats.
"We'll keep clinging to our constitution and our guns and religion, " said Palin.
Citing congressional business, Senator Scott Brown was noticeably absent. Analysts said some politicians were keeping their distance because of the risk of being aligned with the movement's more radical followers.
That's what happened in Pleasanton when candidates learned Orly Taitz -- a leader of the so-called birther movement that claims President Obama wasn't born in the U.S. -- had been asked to speak. Bridget Melson "disinvited" her.
"I didn't think it was an appropriate thing to have her at this time at the Tea Party. It's not what we're about," said Melson
ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥ political scientist Elizabeth Bergman said it's too soon to know the future of the Tea Party.
"Anything's possible and now with the internet we have a whole new medium to deal with and we have viral politics to an extent we've never seen before." says Bergman.
About 15,000 people are expected at the state capitol in Sacramento Thursday. An even bigger rally will be held in Washington, D.C.
And it's no coincidence, of course, that a group whose acronym TEA stands for "taxed enough already" would plan its rallies around the country on tax deadline day, April 15th.