I was unable to attend yesterday’s festivities, so no pictures or anything. Just some thoughts.

What I seem to be seeing from critics of the Tea Party movement is lack of perspective. Well known for my my graciousness, I am willing to offer some at absolutely no charge.

The context of the Tea Party movement represents an unrecognized counter-current not seen since the ascent of Reagan’s 1980 run for the presidency. It is not primarily made up of far-right nuts anymore than the Democrat Party is made up of people who live in trees.  Sure, we could have used some tea parties during Bush’s discretionary and entitlement spending sprees, but that didn’t happen. The camel doesn’t complain until that final straw – the current administration’s policies are viewed as back breakers, and rightly so. For a side of the ideological spectrum that supposedly is interested in the future, the retort “Bush did it, too” conveys a certain lack of personal conviction, intellectual laziness and outright silliness. Besides, as bad as Bush was, no one on the right thought Kerry or Gore would have been any better. Context, people, context.

Reports establish that somewhere in the neighborhood of 110,000 productive people gathered peacefully nationwide yesterday (much to the chagrin of the paranoid inhabitants over at Homeland Security) . If not for work obligations, I imagine the number would have been substantially higher. Let us look at the characteristics of those who participated.

Most are middle class. The age range is vast. They have jobs and families. They are the country’s producers. The overwhelming majority have never gathered to protest anything in their lives before yesterday. Sure, many are anti-Obama for what he has done and what he wants to do but believe me, the average participant has much less use for fiscally irresponsible Republicans.  Most think taxes are too high, yes, but the focus was on the unprecedented largess of the federal government.

Additionally, for those pooh-poohing the participants as poor losers from 2008, keep in mind John McCain didn’t exactly light anyone’s fire, and this has never happened before. It did not happen when LBJ grew the government at an unprecedented pace. It did not happen when Bill Clinton came to office and raised taxes. The Tea Party movement is the birth of something new, not the last vestiges of something dying.  It is also the first mass protest movement from the right. Historically, the right side of the spectrum does not protest. You don’t turn on C-SPAN on a Saturday and see a bunch of unbathed conservatives yelling, beating drums, and marching around in circles. Unlike the Left, we do not have a selective service-like cottage industry of paid protesters. Quite simply, protesting is not something that generally resides in our DNA.  It is not what we do, which is why the fact that it is

happening is all that more remarkable.

Be forewarned, my Obamapologetic friends. Discount the Tea Party movement if you must if it lets you sleep more peacefully at night, but those who have gathered are not some kook right wing fringe of racist nuts. They are the very people paying the way for your constituencies, who have had enough. Behind each tea party protester is a platoon of taxpayers that you need.  Consider that before you thoughtlessly knee-jerk yourself in the chin.