I’ve received an email from a nearby group, the Rock River Patriots, small-government conservatives from Jefferson.
I’m not a member of the group, but wanted to take a moment to post their website’s address, http://rockriverpatriots.com/.
They’re also holding a tea party on September 12th, in Jefferson, from 2pm-5pm. They’ll be at the Jefferson County Courthouse, located at 320 S. Main Street in Jefferson. They ask that those attending “[b]ring your signs, your flags, and your patriotism. Let’s continue to send a message to all the elected representatives in Wisconsin and in Washington D.C.”
Best wishes to the group for a successful tea party — tea parties are an example of genuine, grass roots participatory democracy.
Tea parties typically eschew affiliation with a political party, instead emphasizing a political cause: small government, without endless deficits and increasing federal debt. The idea that tea parties, or most opposition to the Congress’s health care plans, is ‘manufactured’ is nonsense. This opposition comes from ordinary Americans who worry over the damage big government and big deficits will do to their future.
One sees this in the request of the Rock River Patriots that those attending “bring your signs.” Attendees at these events typically make their own posters, at home, and bring them to a public assembly. They don’t rely on fancy posters, printed and distributed, as at some union events.
Not along ago, the Left praised dissent as the highest form of patriotism. They were correct in this praise; too bad their voices are softer, and scarcely heard, now.