Why Waste Tea When Taxes Are Going Down?

Tens of thousands set to attend nationwide demonstrations

(NEWSER) - Fiscal conservatives across the country will reenact Revolutionary history today with tea parties in every state to protest taxes and increased spending, ABC News reports. Tens of thousands are registered to attend in major cities, testing whether anti-Obama budget sentiment, which has picked up steam on the Internet, with help from Fox News, is “the beginning of conservative online grassroots politics,” says a Republican Internet strategist. More»

(NEWSER) - Evaluations of the effectiveness of yesterday’s anti-tax “tea parties” are split predictably down partisan lines, Chris Cillizza writes for the Washington Post. Republicans touted the protests, which brought out tens of thousands and garnered major media coverage, as a success. “I think something is going on out there,” said South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. Newt Gingrich likened the populist demonstrations to Ross Perot’s 1992 campaign. More»

(NEWSER) - When the tea party protesters converged on Washington, one leader, radio demagogue Mark Williams, repeatedly described them as “working stiffs” who felt left out. It’s no wonder they’re angry, writes Timothy Egan for the New York Times, because it’s been a lost decade for “working stiffs.” In 2008 the poverty rate hit an 11-year high and the median household income fell to $50,303, less than it was 10 years earlier. More»

(AP) - Whipped up by conservative commentators and bloggers, tens of thousands of protesters staged "tea parties" around the country today to tap into the collective angst stirred up by a bad economy, government spending, and bailouts. Protesters even threw what appeared to be a box of tea bags toward the White House, causing a brief lockdown at the compound. Click on Slideshow at left to see photos. More»

The real, centuries-old conflict is between urban elites and small towners

(NEWSER) - It's a mistake to see the growing backlash against President Obama through the prism of race, David Brooks writes in the New York Times. The anti-Obama movement springs not from racism, but from the long American tradition of popular distrust of the urban elite, argues Brooks. He notes mostly white anti-government protesters happily mingled with people from an African-American event in the capital last weekend. More»