MOBILE, ALA. -- Conformity isn’t just a virtue in the South, it’s an axiom. So when a throng materializes in protest, it’s remarkable…and maybe ominous. 

I was running late. The Tea Party Tax protest was due to convene at Government Plaza – the combination courthouse/city hall in downtown Mobile – at noon and participants would march en masse a few blocks to Cooper Riverside Park. 

I cruised past the stragglers, most in a variety of patriotic colors. One woman carried a sign that said “Read my lipstick..” the rest I couldn’t see but was likely “…no more taxes.” The youngster following her held a sign stating, “ I am pro-life. I believe in God.” 

The weather was glorious: clear skies, highs in low 70s with a nice wind off the water. 

A steady migration led to the park. Every few seconds, passing cars honked horns in support. Parking was hard sought. 

I saw a van from one of the local radio news stations, one of the pair located here. Both are steadily right wing, broadcasting their mixture of the national names – Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, Beck, et al – that stoke the conservative fires. A few locals hosts give the bigger draws a run for their money in the hyperbole as well. 

Once in the park, I made my way to the amphitheatre. The grounds were packed and organizers cited a estimate of 1,000 but it was more like 600. They were enthusiastic and vocal, with easy applause lines rewarded by continual shouting and ovation.  

The most obvious thing was the sea of white faces. After searching for over an hour, I finally counted three people of color scattered throughout the crowd. 

I noticed black-and-white “I miss Reagan” bumper stickers everywhere, plastered on shirts, sticking from back pockets, everywhere. 

One speaker, a squared away fellow with a military haircut noted that Mobile boasted the youngest pair of Tea Party organizers in the nation. His pronouncements hit the usual bromides: “Capitalism and God are the cornerstones of our nation.” “The founders of our nation came here for freedom of worship.” Feverish response followed each. When he proclaimed the gathering non-partisan, it generated less enthusiasm. 

He told the gathering of the need to recognize traditional family values as the bedrock of the nation. Once again, it found overwhelming ovation. 

The speaker referenced the Constitution and the 10th Amendment. The crowd ate it up. He cited the recent Texas statement of sovereignty, the Lone Star State’s rebuke of the federal government. A roar sprang from the masses. ‘It’s time for the great state of Alabama to do the same.” The din grew. He urged the crowd to write the state legislators and administration to follow Texas’ lead. 

I overheard one older man exclaim into his cellphone, “If it’s like this around the country, then it’s going to be something.” His face beamed. 

When the speaker mentioned the media, a smattering of groans rippled through the crowd. “They scorn our values in Washington.” The people shouted praise again.

He left the crowd with a nugget of fear: “Your children will not know freedom.”  

I saw one libertarian I know who is a certified nut with a fascination for firearms, a fondness for anarchistic rhetoric and who once bragged to someone that if cops ever showed up at his house, he would have to go out in a body bag. He comes from a family with clout, so he’s not marginalized. 

A petition was displayed for signature. 

The next speaker was one of the three African-Americans, a former military member organizers asked to appear. When she mentioned disdain for political correctness, the crowd ate it up.  

The next speaker began with a jab about not needing a teleprompter to address the amphitheatre and the audience let loose one of their loudest responses of the day. Others would follow with the same swipe at Obama. A schoolteacher, he spoke of the need for the federal government to get out of the education business, that schools were best dictated and steered locally, with local values. He said the reason American schools were in shambles was because of federal involvement. Attendees screamed in support of all of it. 

The next speaker declared herself a moderate democrat from the beginning and received mixed response. “I don’t fit the stereotype of what the media is telling you the people doing this are like.” She listed things she believed in, gay marriage, a modicum of gun control and other stances that elicited grumbling from the audience. When she got to her support for trickle down economics though, the crowd awoke. “Everyone has their hand in our pocket,” she said to ovation. 

When she got to the portion of her speech about manufacturing outsourcing and other Big Business-friendly factors in undermining American economics, the crowd’s attention drifted. They wanted red meat, not the intricacies of actual problems. She pulled them back in when she ended on a patriotic note about sacrifice and courage. 

It was also announced that since the response to the Tea Party Facebook page was so strong, they were staging a second rally at 5:30 p.m. so those at work during the midday gathering could attend. It is slated for a spot in the White Flight suburbs to the west, so it’s likely to be dense.

The slogans on signs and shirts were concerning. Some not pictured here: 

-A man and woman in red t-shirts with a graphic that had “Dear Leader” and Chairman Maobama” along with an amalgam vision of Mao and the current president. 

-“I blew my middle class tax cut on this sign.” 

-“We need a leader, not a rock star.” 

-“Capitalism not fascism.”  

One of the young organizers spoke next, stepping to the microphone in the obligatory seersucker. It is the Deep South, after all. He admonished the crowd about media attention. “Don’t watch CNN.” Big Applause. “DON’T watch MSNBC.” Wild ovation. “Don’t take everything on FOX News as the ‘Bible truth.’” Laughter. He instructed attendees to use the Drudge Report as a source of “unvarnished” truth. 

He went on to paraphrase Reagan several times, citing the actor-turned-politician as the young man’s favorite president. His second favorite? John Adams. 

The other young organizer was up next and brought her sign, something paraphrased as “I like my money where I can see it…in my closet.” She went on to explain her need to stockpile and clothing and shoes and how much an affront it was she couldn’t chase materialism in a more unfettered fashion. 

The event closed with an older fellow who croaked an a capella version of a song he wrote entitled “Enough.” He lumbered through the verse and the crowd’s enthusiasm nosedived. They began to dissipate when he turned to them for a call-and-response chorus: “Uncle Sam’s done lost his mind, We need to get offa’ our behinds. Enough!” 

They then walked to the water and tossed in their tea. 

On the way out, a woman handed me a “One Million Dollar Bill,” a Christian evangelical tract disguised as a legal tender facsimile. 

There were a fair amount of school age children there, but it was likely Spring Break as the teacher’s presence on the slate would seem to indicate. 

Media coverage was excellent. At the handful of Iraq War protests, which typically numbered 20-30 participants, media was hardly present. 

I did notice several suspicious looks from attendees. I caught a couple of biker-type fellows pointing at me as they talked. I wore no attire that would indicate much about me, just a pair of khakis and a white Guayabara shirt. I had no press pass, but I was snapping pictures and taking notes. I was bumped a few times as I tried to write but nothing to indicate it was purposeful. 

I did spy the local AP stringer walking along with no notes or camera, just hands in pockets as he strolled. It was curious. 

Despite protestations, it was most decidedly partisan. Chiefly, it was lily-white and in this town racial lines also mean political lines as a quick check down the roll of elected officials can verify. 

As said, Southerners don’t march and yell. They are geared toward acquiescence and the status quo. One of the speakers told the crowd, “You know, people who are fiscally responsible don’t normally protest.” Participation on this scale is notable in light of all of that. 

The stunt from Texas regarding sovereignty looks like customary political theater but to me it smacks of the “states rights” stance that arose from Jim Crow. And that takes me in turn to the arguments that led to America’s bloodiest war. 

Why did so many Mobilians uncharacteristically get involved? I don’t know but as Tea Party members strode to the waterfront, they passed beneath banners fluttering from a succession of light posts down the heart of town: April is Confederate History Month. 

And deep inside, I worried about the nation's rifts.