I went to the Tea Party Rally at Tempe Diablo Stadium

I have written about the Tea Parties and have defended them against the liberal smear campaign, so I thought I should go and see things for myself and to my suprise my wife wanted to come with me. I had not been able to attend a rally before due to my extensive traveling for work.

So off we went to Diablo Stadium. The first thing we noticed were tons of American Flags and not one of them was on fire. In fact, there was not so much protesting but celebrating. It was really an atmosphere of like minded people coming together to show that they all stand for something.


It what they stand for that gets muddled.


Walking from the parking lot to the front gate is a gauntlet of petitioners wanting you to sign so one person or another can get on a ballot. We signed a bunch since I have no problem with anyone getting on the ballot.


I did not sign the petition to get rid of speed cameras.


We get to the main gate and are greeted by people handing out free flags. Once we got our flags we were accosted by another group of petitioners, luckily these were the last gang of petitioners, thought there were some walking around later.


We have made it into the event and now decide to get a picture of our surroundings and just take it all in.


I first notice that the majority of the people are older. This fits the latest poll of the average Tea Party member. They are our parents and grand parents for the most part, mixed in with the some young. Yes they were mostly white, but I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few people of color.


AT NO POINT DID I SEE ANYTHING I WOULD PERCEIVE AS RACIST IN ANYWAY.


A security guard at my work, who is black, said he felt uncomfortable. Not because he was black but because he did not wear his Tea Party shirt and people were suspicious of trouble makers. He said people talked to him but where wary. Interpret that how you want, but I will take his opinion.


The stadium stands were about half full and I am horrible with judging crowd size. But the report my wife heard was that there were 4000 people there.


One side of the stadium was set up for booths. The booths contained shirts, pins, books, and a bunch of politicians. ALL REPUBLICAN.


This is where the bad taste started getting into my mouth. JD Hayworth is running the Tea Party line and I find it hard to believe these people are falling for it. I do not like Hayworth.


I think he is a crook and he sealed the deal when he got ate up by Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. If you can not go on MSNBC and hold your own then you do not get my vote to represent me.

KFYI was a huge influence and a couple of speakers where from the station. Terry Gilberg was one of the speakers from KFYI and she pushed for the Tea Party to not split the vote.


I wanted to run up on stage and scream, vote you’re conscious. I understand the need to get the power away from the Dems, but if we keep voting in dirt bags like Hayworth we will never get to were the Tea Party, as I understand it, want to go.


We listened to a couple more speakers and we decided to leave. I have to say that I was less than impressed with the direction this Tea Party is going.

It is important to remember that the Tea Party movement is truly grass roots. There is no organizational head running all the Tea Party groups around the US. This, I believe is their strength and their weakness.


They are ripe for take over from Republicans, but if you don’t like the direction of one group you can join another, or start your own.


If any Tea Party members or leaders read this, I encourage you to stay away from the lame phrases and keep on message. No more taxes without government spending cuts.


Stop giving the libs at MSNBC ammo by claiming that taxes are too high for everyone, they clearly are not since 47% don’t pay income tax.


Instead, point out that taxes do not need to go up; government spending needs to come down. No more bail outs for corporations who can not run themselves, no more assistance to banks who give bad loans, and no more pork barrel spending.


This can only be done by demanding that the government get out of the banking business. They can regulate and enforce laws. But we have to hold accountable people, like Barney Frank, who force banks to loan money to people have never paid a loan off in their life.


The Tea Party started off strong and I was behind it. Unfortunately, I see it becoming a pawn of the Republicans and cannon fodder to the Dems. Tea Party members are strong and your original message scares the crap out of Washington. Stick to your guns and you will enact true change in our government.