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Dem. co-founder of Tax Revolt Coalition speaks on Tea Party

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
By trying to Marginalize the Tea Party the left is also starting to marginalize their base. Good work.

Eastman: The true backgrounds of Tea Party activists

Read more: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-04-08/blog/a-more-perfect-union/eastman-the-true-backgrounds-of-tea-party-activists#ixzz0kYCmOIux


As a professional woman and the Democratic co-founder of the Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition — one of the area’s largest and most dynamic citizens action organizations — I am often quite perplexed by nationally-based media reports that Tea Party groups consists of angry, white, male, Republican militia members. I noticed that these unfounded assertions, which had been dribbling out over the past year, became a deluge after the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Administration forced though the health care reform legislation. I suspect that elite politicos knew that there would be backlash to both the new measure and the nature of its passage, and wanted to undermine the efforts of those now active in attempts to repeal it.

Therefore, I am grateful to both the San Diego News Network and other local media outlets, which have endeavored to give a fair hearing to local citizens who have become active and involved in the political process. I wanted to underscore the true background of our participants, our actual level of “anger” and provide information on San Diego County Tax Day events.

One of the false assertions is that the membership of Tea Party groups is almost solely Republican. While actual percentages vary between the diverse organizations, citizen action groups are really an amalgam of the American people.

“Based on my review of our Facebook membership, in which you can look at someone’s party affiliation, about 40 percent of our membership is non-Republican, “ said Sarah Bond of the Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition. “In the past few weeks, I have noticed an uptick in people joining and an increase in the ratio of non-Republicans joining SoCal-TRC”.

Another defamation used against Tea Party groups is that they incite violence against fellow Americans. However, as I have attended numerous rallies this year, the only acts of aggression I have personally witnessed have been from counter-protesters attacking Tea Party participants. For example, at a recent rally in front of Congresswoman Susan Davis’ office, a woman in a wheelchair rammed her unit into the legs of a man holding a “Kill the Bill” sign. I also saw a woman, who indicated she was over 90-years old during a diatribe, strike Bond with her cane yelling “Shame on you.” The only responses our participants had in these situations were to continue holding their signs and ignoring the aggressors.

Related Links: More by Leslie | A More Perfect Union | Politics

Bridgit Blandon, an organizer for the Temecula Tea Party Patriots, had this report: “On March 20th, we held a rally in Temecula during which we were pelted with full bottles of water and Gatorade by Leftists as they drove by. These people then called the police and made a fraudulent charge against us – reporting that we were groping them. When the police arrived to investigate, we were rendered speechless by the utter bizarre nature of the charge.”

Bladon noted that the police did not give the Tea Party group any citation. She continued: “This staged charge and false report showed that our opponents will “cross the line” when their philosophy is openly challenged. It also revealed a complete disrespect not only for the First Amendment, but also for the valuable time of police officers. We intend to continue conducting ourselves in a peaceful, law abiding manner and will be the “happy warriors” we’ve always been. We will also have tons of folks videotaping, so that the truth will prevail.”

Videotapes have been critical to correcting the misrepresentations made about the Tea Party groups. For example, Andrew Breitbart of BigGovernment.com offered $100,000 to anyone with real and truthful videotapes that shows pejorative terms were yelled at members of the Black Caucus as they marched through a crowd of Tea Party protesters during a March event in Washington D.C. As of this report, no such videotape has been forthcoming (despite the fact most protesters and counter-protesters have cell phone cameras with video-tape capable digital cameras). Based on the lack of evidence, and the strict adherence to polite and respectful demonstrations that are a hallmark of true Tea Party events, citizen activists now think that the charges made by the Black Caucus members are a complete fabrication.

Tim Daniels, a long-time Libertarian, is planning on video-taping the upcoming Tea Party events. Daniels has recently registered with the Republican Party so that he can vote for Assemblyman Chuck Devore in the June Primary.

“I simply think that our government is intrusive, excessive, and dangerous to our economic future and that Barack Obama represents an ascendancy of every bad, big government ‘progressive’ idea in this nation’s recent history,” explained Daniels when asked as to why he would be joining the Tax Day events. “ We are on the verge of facing taxation levels that would make the ’social democracies’ in Europe look like tax havens.”

“I believe that many Americans do not realize this.”

For April 15th events, check out the following Web sites:

North County Conservatives

Gary Gonsalves of Stop Taxing Us

Vista Tea Party

Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition

Leslie Eastman runs an environmental health and safety consulting firm, Eastman Enterprises, and is a founding member of the grassroots organization, Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition.
 
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