Report from the Sacramento "Tea Party"...

[Jankyn]

This from SN&R's Kel Munger:

"Revolt of the frightened, middle-aged white tea-baggers"

"...Second, this was all about the over-40 white people (only person of color I saw in the whole place who wasn’t wearing a police uniform was a brave Black man on a bicycle who rode by with a “Fox Sucks” sign shouting “Fox can teabag me!”). Men outnumbered women about three to one."

[Tempest]

1. Here in Bakersfield it was all white older men and women

No minorities I could see, and few people in their 20s and 30s.

[tridim]

2. But the Faux dude said the crowd was "diverse" and "looks like America"

[liberalmuse]

3. Hahaha! That is awesome!

About the guy on the bike, not about all the teabaggers being close to my age. Sometimes I hate my generation, but we do have some pretty awesome liberals from my bunch (President Obama being one of them).

[Bennyboy]

4. Wow I just posted my report....

Okay I gotta say....A Lot more people for this than any other type of protest I have ever seen at the Capitol in Sacramento.



I rode light rail down and was very surprised to find a ton of people were also riding to the event. I asked them what they were doing and they told me protesting taxes, going to a Tea party. All wrapped in the American Flag.. I asked which ones and they all said "excessive" taxes. I asked them what they they thought about Light rail and transit in general being susidized by the gov't and they told me they paid their way on(?????).

We got the event and this herd of protestors headed to the Capitol. They waved flags and yelled USA. Lots of signs, few mispelled . Everyone was against taxes. I asked which taxes and nobody could pinpoint which programs they did not like. So I asked them about the military and if you want to cut waste that should be the first place they should cut. That did not really sit well. I asked them if they felt safe with the huge police presence and they were fine with that.

There seems to be some type of disconnect with these people. I asked three guys, two wearing a Aluet shirt and another wearing a pipefitters local jacket why they were there and tehy told me they don't like to pay taxes. I asked them what the Aluet company does and he told me they clean State Gov't buildings. The Aluet Co is the largest State janitorial firm on the West Coast they told me. "So you clean state buildings, but you don't like paying taxes?"...And really, a sheet of disbelief came over their faces.

I asked them if they were well paid with benes and they told me they were in fact very well paid with medical and retirement.


There were tons of "Obama is a socialist" or some such signs too. Seemed to be the prevelant theme of the event. When I would encounter someone with the sign I would ask them waht they felt about the military and they told me they like the military just fine, I asked them if they liked the police and tehy liked them just fine too. Same with the Fire department, the Zoo keeper etc,but they hate waste and such..

there was a lot of talk about the bailouts, stopping foreclosures etc. That was the main message. A bunch of radio jocks (and Sac is totally right wing on the radio) rattled on about how this was the revolution, Reagan references a plenty, and How barack Obama was going to lead us to socialism.

I kept a low profile and visited the capitol and took some photos in there. Arnie's got a new bear too but no photos of that.


As the crowd thinned out and I was about to do the same (no really they were still going strong I just couldn't handle it anymore)I hopped back on the rail. full of protestors. I asked why they had been protesting and they told me about the taxes and the tea bag event. I asked them what news they watched on TV and all said FOX.(At the event itself, the FOX truck had the primo place at the Capitol.) I asked them what taxes they wanted to cut and they all said "all of them". They are pissed about school boards, city gov't, county Gov't and Obama's Gov't.

I asked them if they thought the military was the place to begin cutting and some old man with an accent (german maybe?)got in my face. Told me how the military was the reason I was on the light rail train etc. I tried to explain to him that I was talking about cutting spending not dissing the military. But he did not get it and offered to "Get off the train" with him. I declined.

Kind of fun, kind of scary. I have to imagine I have the same feeling about these people as these people had about me when I protested.

The rest of the album....http://picasaweb.google.com/bennyboy420/TEABAGCapitolStRoseOfLima?authkey=Gv1sRgCLyXn7Gf9a6nswE#5325027002136806706


They were very loud too and fired up. Passionate as hell. Never seen that out of this type of person before.

Oh yeah The crowd was mostly over 50 but a surprising amount of younger people. And there were not many people of color. I saw two black men there and no asians or hispanic looking people.

[mwei924]

5. Haha, the biker guy is my new hero.