The Tea Party Experience in Little Dixie

I spent mid-day Saturday at a Tea Party, though the beverage of choice was the iced bottled water made available through someone's generous donation.

I had missed the Tea Party experience on April 15 "owing" to the fact that I owed Uncle Sam a fairly hefty tax due, and I had waited as long as I could to pay it. But you can believe that I was definitely with them in spirit. Oh, yes.

This event was the second Tea Party for the people of Poteau. The first one apparently drew a fairly sizable crowd. This one was a bit more modest, which I would attribute to the heat and humidity of the parking lot upon which it was held. Those who braved the swelter were enthusiastic and, thanks to the "Cap'n Tax" vote in the House the night before, very motivated.

There were a couple of T-shirts that explained that the "TEA" in the party stood for "Taxed Enough Already," and the day's focus was on the federal government's reckless spending and the taxation, direct and indirect, that we are already beginning to experience as a result of this irresponsible conduct.

The local AM and FM radio station -- KPRV -- was on hand to interview people. The emcee was organized with a set of bullet points and several anecdotes to illustrate the grievances of the American people. There were a few speakers who knew in advance that they would be called upon to speak. A couple were small business owners who detailed the impact of government tax-and-spend policies, especially Cap and Trade, would hurt their ability to stay in business and would drive up prices for everyone.

One of them told of how in a single year he paid over a quarter million dollars in fuel taxes from sales at his station. If the "Cap and Trade" legislation is approved by the Senate, he said, it would be an indirect tax added to all those currently collected.

"I won't pay this tax," he said. "No business that wants to stay in business would pay this. You will pay the taxes. Your costs will go up."

Apparently every Oklahoma politician, including Senators Inhofe and Coburn, to Rep. Dan Boren and Mary Fallin, to Gov. Brad Henry and Attorney General Drew Edmondson, had been sent invitations to take "tea." A handful sent regrets, but some, like the governor and Rep. Boren, did not even bother to RSVP.

If my read of the crowd is correct, Rep. Boren has a problem, even with his "no" vote on Cap and Trade. "He waited to see if it would pass before he voted no," one man told me. His remark drew grim laughs from a small crowd around us. I don't know if this is true, or not, but the perception is that Dan Boren is a liberal who cloaks himself in the Second Amendment and who has been fortunate to have weak opponents in his two races. "His very presence helps keep the liberal leadership of Nancy Pelosi intact," one woman told me. She recently changed her registration from Democrat to Republican, but says she is thinking of going independent. "I don't think you can trust anyone because of a party label," she said.

"Let's clean house," another shouted. "Throw 'em all out next year!"

What kind of people attend Tea Parties, I had wondered. History geeks? Secessionists? Black helicopter conspiracy nuts?

If Poteau is representative of the movement, the type of people you see can't really be categorized. There are working moms and stay at home moms. Grandmothers and grandfathers who are heartbroken at the thought that their grandchildren, and their children, are being saddled with unsustainable debt which will reduce their quality of life and limit their freedom. Farmers with a "beef" against government proposals to further encroach on their freedom to farm. Retired military vets who survived war but believe that an apathetic populace is trading its liberty for assurances of economic and environmental "security", and this galls them because of the dear price paid to safeguard those liberties from enemies outside of the country. There were small business owners and at least one minister in the crowd. An insurance man. A couple of school teachers.

In other words, I saw a cross-section of the people of LeFlore County, Oklahoma. Decent, God-fearing, hard-working folks who are politically aware, and possess an intelligence much greater than they are given credit for by the national mainstream media. Yes, they may speak with accents that show they are from "Little Dixie," but they have read, or are reading, their Constitution, and they know that this nation is in trouble. They point to an elected "leadership" that goes to Washington and gets rich on salaries that should not allow it. They are aware of unelected elites who staff the executive branch and the congressional offices, well-educated bureaucrats who stay in their positions regardless of which party is in power, and who move their Progressive agenda slowly, but surely, down the field.

These were not racists, or agitators, or paranoid cultists. In Oklahoma many of us have Indian blood in varying percentages. We don't much care what your skin color is or what you do behind your bedroom door. We'll treat you like a neighbor unless you act un-neighborly, and even then there's a hard line you would have to cross first. You see, these are not people of hate. Hatred takes a lot of energy, and they can't spare it on such silliness. They have families to feed, and so they work for a living. Real work. They love their families, and they love their Oklahoma mountains, fields, and lakes. Life is such a hoot, most of the time!

But what the people at the Tea Party are is sick and tired of being sick and tired. They are frustrated. They love their nation and are unafraid to sing the "Star Spangled Banner" at the top of their voices in front of their neighbors. They are not dangerous to the Republic; they are its potential restoration. The danger they pose is at the ballot box; this, indeed, is their promise.

I guess I was in the minority, as I am a history geek, but I was pleased to meet another. He and I traded "bullet points" in the spaces between the speakers. How telling is it that both of us had read Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" in the past year? "It was like reading the headlines from the newspapers," he said. "I couldn't believe how prophetic the book was. She nailed it." He said he was there because he didn't want his children or grandchildren to ask him why he sat by and did nothing while freedom was taken away.

I came not knowing who I would see or what I would think about it, but as I hung around I realized two things: 1) I needed to get my wife's umbrella out of the car. That sun was fierce! And, 2) despite the current race to socialism in Washington, there is hope in the heartland. There are people willing to stand up and shout "Slow Down!" or "Stop the Madness!"

I came not planning to join in but, as a citizen journalist, watch and learn. That I did, but I wound up accepting an invitation to speak on that flatbed trailer "stage," giving the good folks my best three minutes of advice on how to initiate a national constitutional amendment on term limits for members of Congress. I don't know how intelligible I was, but for a moment there I saw myself as a modern Thomas Paine. It felt good. (The reality is that the people probably saw a rambling, middle-aged guy in the early stages of heat stroke. Each to their own, I say.)

It wasn't a huge crowd, but it was passionately united in its love for liberty and its concern for country. I believe that it represents the best impulses of our people, and that it is merely the tip of the iceberg, a vast number of others who think and feel similarly, hidden beneath the waterline of everyday life.

America may yet be an apathetic nation, but it is overwhelmingly still a nation of good people who may not even realize how much they love freedom and the choices that come with it.

The Progressive movement has never understood this very well. In over a hundred years there have belittled us and worked slowly to install a shadow government of "experts" and "managers" to tell us "lesser mortals" what is in our best interests. They want us to trade individual liberty in for group security. They want us to hand over our children for indoctrination into "societal responsibilities" and reject antiquated notions that there is a personal God who cares for each and every human, enough to grant him or her unalienable rights of life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness.

But we know instinctively -- in our "gut" -- that this is not reality. We believe, as did our Founding Fathers, that individuals are best served by large doses of liberty and strict limits on government, which can only exercise such powers as we permit.

It is our birthright, and we shall not trade it for a hot bowl of stew on a cold winter's day, or a cold brewski in July.