Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, candidate running against Barbara Boxer (and others) for a California senate seat, showed up with a bit of a stem winder. Sounds like he's got the fire in the belly. We'll see if he survives the primary.
Wayne Allyn Root, onetime Libertarian vice presidential candidate was there. I believe it was he who alluded to a story from New York, that OTB (Off Track Betting) was going bankrupt there. He then reminded us of when the Federal government took over management of the highly profitable Mustang Ranch and bankrupted it within a year.
He made the point that if the government can't make money with prostitution (legal in Nevada) and gambling, what hope did we have that they could run health care at a profit?
I believe it was he who also dubbed Obama, Reid and Pelosi: "The Axis of Taxes"
Root graduated from Columbia the same year as Barack Obama. He related the anecdote that he was in a poly-sci class the day Reagan was shot. At the premature news, "Reagan's been assassinated", he said that the reaction was "Cheers and high fives".
Off the stage, tea partiers gladly modeled their protest wear. It was not unusual to see someone "strike a pose" so that someone else could take their picture. One I thought was clever:
"Seven out of ten terrorists prefer the New York Times.
...The other three can't read!"
Saturday Night Live alum, Victoria Jackson was there singing about a "Communist in the White House". She says, "I have a master's degree in Obamunism."
And Andrew Breitbart gave an impassioned speech of the deceitful, egg throwing, scum sucking liberals at the Searchlight affair (my words, not his). If your mind is not totally closed, you can hear his account on that here.
I'm leaving out a few people. Thousands attended. Dozens spoke. Thousands listened.
All in all, it was a good trip. I came back home with a small Gadsden flag and a lot of memories. Didn't meet up with everyone there I thought I would, but the year's still young. Maybe there'll be another tea party in the offing I can get to?
Moonbattery has some great pics of the Arizona event.
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Finally someone calls Wayne Root what he really is, a Republican Tea Party candidate.
ReplyDeleteHe tried to co-opt the Libertarian party. I hope we can be done with him finally.
I listened to Mr Root just last Saturday 4/10/10 at a Libertarian meeting in Oconomowoc, WI.
ReplyDeleteHe spoke about "re-branding" the libertarian party and how similar we were to the Tea Party. I felt slightly nauseated by how obvious he was in his sales attempts. He does want us to buy his line, and I believe some of us do.
We who truly believe in Liberty can have no room for racism, jingoism, or religious intolerance.
Wayne doesn't seem to know the differences between some fairly different things: lawyers and liars; someone graduating from Harvard law school with honors and a poli-sci major that believed he could never be accepted with his GPA at Harvard and so didn't apply; a grouper and a Patagonian tooth fish; Libertarian Party and Tea Party.
Perhaps he sees it not as co-opting but a synergy of the two?
ReplyDeleteSimply "rebranding" the libertarians will not overcome the differences between them and others. It might make people more suspicious of what one might be trying to hide.
We should emphasize the things we have in common and the areas where we can cooperate, but a merger of any sort isn't in the cards.