There was a million things I needed to get done today. Not the least was finishing our taxes. Instead- I got out of work early..... and went out looking for trouble.  This was an act of redemption for me. During the hotly contested election of 08- I sat out pretty much all the grassroots action because of our newborn baby. I am ecstatic that Obama won- but I also felt a tinge of regret that I played no part in his historic victory.

So tonight I was determined to raise some and catch some hell for the good cause. I was going to  crash the San Jose Tea Party as a counter-demonstrator. I tore up an office recycling cardbox box and hastily wrote out 'Obama corrects Bush mistakes' (and immediately realized how bad I am at slogans). I hung the sign around my neck with paper clips, and off to battle I went.

During the long walk to the protest site, an earnest and wholesome looking college girl  heading to the tea party struck up a conversation with me. She was friendly and disarming. She brought up some issues about Obama not keeping his campaign promises with the gentle tone of a Mormon evengelist. If I was looking for trouble- I wasn't finding it here.

We got to the protest site- and I was fairly impressed- there was a good 1000 people there. Not bad at all for a right wing cause. I milled around the park. A few people glared at me and my sign. But to a man, woman or child, people were polite and on their best behavior. I quietly milled around the park some more. Nobody talked to me. I felt lonely more than anything else.

And then the sight of blood! It turns out there was a small contingent of counter protesters standing just next to the main statge. If you've been around the Bay Area (or Seattle, New York, Boston, etc), you'll recognize these 'professional protesters' right away. These disaffected radical youths can be found in any protest for any occasion. They always trumpet their own pet causes (Palestine! WTO!  etc) and are completely tone-deaf as to what the larger cause is. Anyways- on this occasion their pet cause happens to be immigrant rights and amnesty. It's totally and completely non sequitar, apropos nothing. But it sure gets the teabaggers riled up though. This small contingent of scruffy black clad kids were surrounded by 2 rows of riot cops in full gear, and outside of that a wall of teabaggers hurling every cliched insult from the book: "illegals get the **** out", "this is America", "Get that **** Mexican flag out of my face". It was an ugly scene. I suddenly felt alive.

You're not going to find any trouble just by standing there, I thought to myself, it's time to stir shit up.  By then the teabaggers were marching around the park. I started chanting Obama, Obama. I was hoping the anarchist youths would join in. But nope- complete and total indifference from them. Just as I thought- they think of Obama as yet another bought and paid for pimp for the corporate fatcats (hard to blame them really). Well screw them. I was just warming up: "We had an election and you guys lost!" "Obama won- your guy lost" "You are a traitor. You are unamerican"... I was pushing big red buttons, and things were happening thick and fast now. One guy, who looks about 60, rushed up to me and started screaming in my face "Your sign is disgusting. You disgust me. You have no right to be here....." His face was flushed red.  He started to physically push me to goad me into a fight. I put my hand on his shoulder and said "hey- don't blow a blood vessel OK?" He spat right in my face. Mind you- this was all happening about 3ft away from the line of riot police. I grabbed his arm and turned to the riot policeman in front of me and said "Did you see that? Why aren't you doing anything?" The riot cop very, very meekly replied "yes I know" while standing there like a statue. Gee, thanks for nothing Mr. policeman. If I was younger- my blood would have been boiling by now. But at my cynical old age- my heart rate didn't even go up half a beat. Amazing. The red faced cretin sauntered off.

I continued hurling insults at the teabaggers. A tall, lean and handsome man started arguing with me. As I talked to him, it seems like his biggest beef is with the lazy people on welfare and people who don't pay any taxes. It seems to be the common refrain of virtually every teabagger I talked to tonight. This is the root of their timeless anger. All other issues are secondary.

A young black guy standing next to me seemed very amused by my antics. I started talking to him. He wasn't carrying any signs. As it turns out he was an independent, and a little bit confused. He said he liked Huckabee because of his flat tax proposal. He thought Newt Gingrich makes a lot of sense. But then he voted for Obama. He also observed aloud, astutely, that the protestors were almost uniformly white (which is NOT typical of San Jose, CA), and that there was a fair amount of overt racism towards the aforementioned immigration amnesty folks. Confused but honest and talkative. I liked him.

A gentleman with his silver hair neatly slicked back soon join our conversation. He broke the ice by admitting that He was very displeased with Bush. This is the other refrain I kept hearing all night. In fact I broke the ice with at least two other teabaggers through our common disdain for Bush. Bush turns out to be a uniter alright.  Anyways, as we talked more- it turns out the silver haired gentleman was a commercial contractor who counts himself lucky because his company is working on the San Jose airport- a government project. He even allowed that Obama's stimulus money is keeping his projects funded. He thought his project was a good one. It's just that he didn't like the high speed rail project. We talked about the economy, about work, about Silicon Valley. Silver haired gentleman finally said:" this is real democracy right here- the fact that the 3 of us - asian, white and black- can talk despite our differences" He was absolutely right.

I ran into a few (actually many) Ron Paul types. It's easy to tell because they are all pushing HR 1207- the bill to audit the Federal Reserve. Maybe because of their fringe existence- they feel a need to convert rather than to confront. All of them approached me respectfully, and many opened with their opposition to the Iraq War, the Patriot Act and the continued occupation. It's hard to argue with the Ron Paul types when they are being reasonable.

I ran into a few high school students. They ran the gamut from a few Ron Paul types to one rather typical loutish pro-war, pro-Bush, 'torture them terrist' asshole (with a rather elegant british accent though). Arguments with these kids tend to be predictable. "Tortures kept us safe from terrists!"  "Really- how come tortures didn't keep the 4000 soldiers from getting killed?"  "yeah- but that was a war"  "How come torture didn't keep the UK from 2 terrorist bomb attacks?"  "well- that's the UK!"  "the UK was with us in the Iraq War. UK helped us with the renditions. UK helped with the torture in Bagram"   "yeah- but they like have gun control in the UK!"

I engaged a nerdy looking Ron Paulian. He readily admitted that his pro-torture, pro-war friend was off his rocker. We got to economics. I asked him "you know what Ron Paul's solution is?- it's the gold standard. Do you know how many modern countries use the gold standard?"  "... don't know..."  "ZERO. You sure you want to embrace something like that?"   "..... umm- I got to go join my friends to catch a ride home."

A guy in his late 30's with a biker get-up and a bandana around his head started yelling at me: "how much taxes are you paying today?"  "I am getting $9000 in tax refund. I am very happy with that."  "Sure you're happy- you're one of the 50% who don't pay any income tax!"  "You don't know a damn thing about how the tax system works, do you?" By this time he already turned his back and ran off. It's hard to imagine living to his age and not realizing that getting a tax refund does not in anyway imply you're not paying any income tax. It's the same kind of stunning ignorance that causes many a Joe the Plumber to think that it's better to be making $249k and be in the 33% bracket, than making $250k and be in the 35% bracket. 

By now the pro-amnesty anarchist contingent started marching around the park to the beat of their own drummer, literally as well as figuratively. "the people, united, can never be defeated", "power to the people", etc, etc. It's just deeply disappointing to see my fellow leftists become walking caricatures. No matter, I saw a young man and an older fellow- maybe his father- among that contingent, carrying A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition signs. I asked them if ANSWER organized the counter demonstration. "No- it's all spontaneous"  We talked a little more. I recalled the huge anti-war march in San Francisco in 2002 (2003, the older fellow corrected me). I told them how grateful I was to the ANSWER coalition for organizing that hugely successful protest which brought >150,000 people to Market Street that day. We reminesced about how scared people were back in those darkest of days. Back when Ari Fleischer told us to watch what we said. I hardly agree with the ANSWER coaltion on anything. But that was their finest hour, and I will never forget the leadership they showed.

It was getting chilly now. People were dispersing. I looked for trouble. I found trouble. I also found something else: democracy. For one brief afternoon- we were all on the same side-  the side that gives a damn. Teabaggers: I salute you. Black clad anarchists: I salute you. As long as this many people care about the fate of this country- better days will be here yet.