The Tax Day Tea Party was either a great beginning or a 'Do you remember?' moment. There's an old saw about how of the millions of people who claimed they were at Woodstock, only 500 thousand or so actually are or were telling the truth. The Tax Day Tea Party needs to fall into the category where everybody who went to the second and third and fourth want to say they were there at the first one. Well, the first big one.
Was it bigger than expected? Smaller? It depends on who you ask. Getting an accurate assessment is like trying to count sand. The real numbers will never be known. Cast aside the acidic derision of the mainstream media,
and you see a denigration of the numbers. Compare Jim Geraghty at National Review's number of 337,000 with The Atlantic is putting it at a paltry 25,000 total and 538, the turnout was 262,000.
The numbers don't really matter so much as what's next. If it's 500,000 or 5,000 what matters is that it happens again. Lefties turned out by the tens to protest the war in Iraq knowing they would get coverage from NBC and CNN as if they were a massive civil uprising. The double standard is there, and the Tea Parties will be denigrated every time they happen. But conservatives shouldn't be discouraged by that. Even Michael Steele had a bit of fire to him and that's encouraging.
The real momentum will come, if this is the beginning. It's been rumored a July 4th Tea Party is possible. That shouldn't be the last one either - Labor Day is a great opportunity. Between now and December, there should be at least 3, but hopefully 4 more national Tea Party days.
The reason for that number is that the news cycle can only ignore and denigrate if there is no momentum. And with momentum comes more visibility into their bias. More importantly, 3 or 4 more days like the 15th, well timed, and we're headed into 2010 has it's own significance. If the momentum grows heading into the Congressional election cycle it's momentum for conservatives in the GOP primaries and momentum for the GOP in the general elections.
Obviously Tea Parties in the dead of winter can be tricky, but they should carry right through to October 2010.
July 4th 2009.
Labor Day 2009
Black Friday 2009 (after Thanksgiving)
New Years Eve 2009
President's Day 2010
Tax Day 2010
July 4 2010
Labor Day 2010
November 1st 2010
That's a lot to ask but it's for your country's future.
I would like to see one on September 11 or 12.
ReplyDeleteThe more the merrier. Why the 11th or 12th?
ReplyDelete