Forums of the Libertarian Left

I spent about 45 minutes at the Morristown, NJ Tea Party today. I went to give out flyers for my new internet radio show (http://darianworden.com/thinkingliberty.pdf) and see what was going on. So a few observations for what it's worth:

On my way from the car I saw a flyer stating that the Tea Party was a "fraud" and that at least one of the speakers had in the past called african americans "subhuman" and encouraged people to shoot illegal immigrants. I didn't take a picture or get a copy.

The crowd was very white, age distribution skewed toward middle age. I think the speaker who was on when I got there was black, but I was kind of far from the podium. He gave the impression that "very mean-spirited things" said in the past didn't bother him much because he believed the event was about standing up for freedom.

The only counter-protest/dissenting block I saw were 2 guys standing next to each other, one with a Democrat for governor sign and the other with a sign telling the tea party to "go home".

Signs in the crowd showed a lack of understanding - several about Obama's "Marxism" and "socialism", only one sign about the war(s) (anti-war sign was held by a guy with a Ron Paul hat). One large sign said the anti-christ lives in the white house.

Other than the Ron Paul hat, no sign of Campaign for Liberty.

Lots of waving and wearing the stars and stripes. A noticable number of rattlesnake flags also.

One guy had a flagpole with a "76" revolutionary flag and a black and gold gadsden flag. I think it was this guy - http://fr33agents.ning.com/profile/TommyFlags.

Booths included some kind of petition against healthcare reform, a voter registration table, and tables for more info on local Tea Party rallies.

The speaker who was on when I left noted that Obama isn't the only problem and that Democrat and Republican politicians over the last 40 years have caused problems.

I didn't see much media presence there.

Several men were wearing shirts that said "Morristown Tea Party Security".

My overall impression is that there are some people who could be pulled away from such a crowd with the right approach, but many there who should be ignored. So it might be worth seeding the area with flyers before a rally if one happens in your area. Like this flyer - http://nj.libertarianleft.org/downloads ... algame.pdf

Here's some perspectives (including mine) on the April 15 Tea Party rallies - http://blogofbile.com/2009/04/16/teaparty-round-up/

I found some pictures of the event. Not many potential Allies...
http://fr33agents.ning.com/photo/album/ ... um%3A26262

Frankly, I see looking for potential allies at these Tea Parties as just looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Yeah, I figured it was worth going to check up on them and pull the more rational attendees at least a little away from authoritarianism. I certainly wasn't expecting any recruits!

Looking at the pictures it seems like just a lot of angry Republicans.

Mostly an anti-obama movement?

>Mostly an anti-obama movement?

For the most part, I'd say yes. While rhetoric was mostly about freedom, a majority of the signs were about how horrible Obama or "socialism" are.

Interestingly enough, the Morristown rally seemed less overtly partisan than the April 15 Manhattan rally, but it was sillier - people wearing multiple flags, accusing Obama of Marxism, and even signs to support the CIA. The fucking CIA! It's like the flag-waving crowd is too proud of the ability of Americans to put holes in people around the world to admit that warmongering is an integral part of the current crisis, so they drape flags on themselves like security blankets and look to nationalism.

I'm wondering now what portion of these people are simply hard-working folk who turn right because that is the only group they see reaching out to them, and what portion are just ugly people who will fight for privilege and militant nationalism. If we could split these groups, that could be useful, but I don't think that's a mission that Alliance of the Libertarian Left should spend much time on.

Rorshak (1313) wrote:Frankly, I see looking for potential allies at these Tea Parties as just looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

No doubt. I've been to a few of these events (even blogged about it) and it's been disappointing.

But, frankly, looking for potential allies is gonna be a needle in a haystack maneuver no matter where we go. The real problem I see here is the Campaign for Liberty allowing their grassroots movement to be coopted by a bunch of FOX News types. C4L was supposed to be different, but all they're demonstrating is that real positions like opposition to war are not important.