So I rolled myself down on my new wheels to the tea bag-tax day-pro-america-anti-obama-whatever else "demonstration" (grassroots, of course) at the Texas Capitol building this afternoon. I have been to my share of demos in my time. Nothing national, I prefer local. And you know what? This really wasn't too much different. Maybe a little more boring. Or, a lot more boring as I had absolutely nothing invested in this except maybe hopes for an Open Salon article.

So my first impression as I'm scouting this all out is that there is no real focus. That and they have Bob Marley playing "Get Up, Stand Up," which, while not innappropriate, does rub me the wrong way as I am pretty big Marley fan. You know, that ain't cool. Anyway, there is no focus with these people. Anti-tax, pro-gun, pro-military, "liberty", pictures of Barney Frank. I don't know, maybe I'm just not keyed into all this, but it seemed like quite a lot for one demonstration. Of course the overall impression is that Barack Obama, and his wife (they should give her so much credit!), are solely responsible for....well, everything bad in the world today.

So the speakers start, but not before a couple of songs from a couple very forgettable musicians singing about...something. I had the vague impression that they had changed the lyrics of some popular country song to fit the occasion. But given the state of mainstream country music it was probably written just that way. Same thing, give me freedom, support the troops, blah blah twang twang.

The first speaker was some obviously enraged (as evidenced by his SCREAMING into the microphone) soon-to-be politician. Not a representative yet (No Taxation Without...oh, well, I'll vote for this guy anyway) but he's running. Joe Petronus. Or something, I can't find anything about him on the google, so who knows. Anyway, he started by giving "props" (!!) to the ladies who opened up for him. Awesome. And more screaming about typical outraged white guy stuff. I had to back away.

The second speaker was forgettable. Or maybe I just couldn't stand to listen to the exact same speech again. The only thing that really got me was the "No More Taxes" chant. About eight rounds and the crowd was spent. Which of course was followed up with "Well, no new taxes," by speaker #2. Um, ok.

Speaker number three was Dan Patrick, State Senator. So, you know, third time through the same speech. Although he did say he had never been more proud to be an American or a Texan than on this day, April 15, 2009, a day that will be remembered by our children's children as the New Declaration of Independence. Or something. I didn't really see what was so memorable about it other than the Right now has something to get out and yell about...or at least they think they do.

So yeah, I didn't stick around for the march down Congress Avenue in Downtown Austin. I'm pretty sick right now and frankly I didn't feel like it was worth it. Although now I'm thinking that I would have loved to hear what kinds of chants they might come up with.

Or found on the internet. Because here is the thing. As much as these rallies are being touted as grassroots I saw so many printed-off-looking signs and so many slogans that have appeared in other marches. See Thomas Ductiler's OS post about Atlanta's rally here http://open.salon.com/blog/thomas_t_ductiler/2009/04/15/peachtree_city_an_epicenter_of_unrest (sorry that isn't cleaner). So many of the signs he posted showed up in Austin as well, including One Big Ass Mistake America (OBAMA). And the "Which one are you drinking," signs with Koolaid or tea...yeah, I didn't get that one, but I saw a bunch of variations.

So, overall, an eventful outing. I mean, here's the thing. This isn't really any more outrageous or unique than any of the Lefty protests I've been too. And I am a pretty comitted Lefty. I just think standing around yelling can only get you so far. The Right has been yelling about God, Guns, and Taxes for so long I wonder what power they really have to do anything about it.

In any case, I hope this contributes to our emerging picture of the Right's capability to organize a protest. I'm all about it. It keeps them away from their guns for a few hours.

Some pics...

Later my people!

A. McNeil