# Do you personally know someone who's been to a Tea Party or yelled at a town hall? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 20, 2009, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841 "2009-09-20T16:29:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/21 "2009-09-22T02:38:01Z")
I wasn’t trying to bait you. Your evasion is noted, though. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/22 "2009-09-22T02:42:44Z")
> [@Marconi\_Schmeese](#): > > Consider me not baited. Let me give it a shot: Given that you’re neither radical, nor nutty,what was your inspiration for attending the rally? Were you angry with a particular policy platform and you wanted to express your disagreement? If so, which policy? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/23 "2009-09-22T02:43:21Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I wasn’t trying to bait you. Your evasion is noted, though. After someone tells you they went to the rally, how is calling it a “nutbag rally” not bating them? “Nutbag” is a good word to use to bait people. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/24 "2009-09-22T02:49:39Z")
I didn’t think it was controversial to call a Glenn Beck organized event as a nutbag rally. I gave the poster credit for understanding the event was ridiculous, and I was enquiring as to why he subjected himself to it. I assumed he must have been escorting a crazy aunt or something. I can’t fathom a reason why a sane, rational person would want to go to something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/25 "2009-09-22T02:53:33Z")
A guy who I knew about 15 years ago went to a tea party. The only contact I’ve had with him for several years is brief pleasantries through facebook, so I’m not really sure what kind of mindset he has. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/26 "2009-09-22T02:56:30Z")
Perhaps instead of skipping straight to the assumptions though, we could actually talk to someone who was, you know, actually at a rally and try to learn something from them. Perhaps they had an actual policy disagreement, and then found that this rally was not a good venue for rational discussion of politics. If we just assume that they’re all nutbags, we lose the chance to learn. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/27 "2009-09-22T03:05:43Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I didn’t think it was controversial to call a Glenn Beck organized event as a nutbag rally. I gave the poster credit for understanding the event was ridiculous, and I was enquiring as to why he subjected himself to it. I assumed he must have been escorting a crazy aunt or something. I can’t fathom a reason why a sane, rational person would want to go to something like that. My friend went to the DC rally, not to be part of it, but to watch it, for entertainment value. He mentioned to me that it was the most uniformly white group of people he ever remembers seeing. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/28 "2009-09-22T03:07:29Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Perhaps instead of skipping straight to the assumptions though, we could actually talk to someone who was, you know, actually at a rally and try to learn something from them. Perhaps they had an actual policy disagreement, and then found that this rally was not a good venue for rational discussion of politics. > > If we just assume that they’re all nutbags, we lose the chance to learn. I wasn’t assuming **Marconi** was a nutbag. I was assuming he was a normal person who went to a nutty rally. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/29 "2009-09-22T03:09:05Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I wasn’t assuming **Marconi** was a nutbag. I was assuming he was a normal person who went to a nutty rally. I know. It could be taken that you assumed he was nutty though. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/30 "2009-09-22T03:09:17Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > My friend went to the DC rally, not to be part of it, but to watch it, for entertainment value. He mentioned to me that it was the most uniformly white group of people he ever remembers seeing. I heard some attendees on the radio trying to insist it wasn’t all white, and that they had seen some Cubans there. I think they were lying, though. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/31 "2009-09-22T04:40:40Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I heard some attendees on the radio trying to insist it wasn’t all white, and that they had seen some Cubans there. I think they were lying, though. Two of the speakers (Mario Lopez, with the Hispanic Leadership Fund and Hector Barreto, with the Latino Coaltion) were Hispanic, and at least one of the speakers (Mason Weaver) was black. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/32 "2009-09-22T07:40:12Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I wasn’t assuming **Marconi** was a nutbag. I was assuming he was a normal person who went to a nutty rally. Not simply nutty; never forget that the bag is the critical element of nutbaggery. Why, without the bag, it’s nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/33 "2009-09-22T14:06:22Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Two of the speakers (Mario Lopez, with the Hispanic Leadership Fund and Hector Barreto, with the Latino Coaltion) were Hispanic, and at least one of the speakers (Mason Weaver) was black. I’m aware that there were a handful of token, right wing, brown people there. I’m not impressed. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/34 "2009-09-22T14:09:11Z")
But Slater from \*Saved By The Bell \*does nothing for you? What are you? Communist or something? ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/35 "2009-09-22T14:21:07Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Nobody is arguing that the left protests also. The point is the REASON for the protests. You can’t seriously compare anti war protests vs the ignorance of the tea parties can you? the fact that they are protesting is inconsequential, its that they are protesting against scary words that they have absolutely no idea about simply because they heard it on FOX news. This seems to me to be the biggest difference between the “Bush is Evil” and “Obama is Evil” protests. Whether you agree with the motives for it or not, the Iraq War is _real_ and tangible, it’s a done deal. What the Right (for want of a better term) is protesting seems to be perceived intent, a much slippier thing. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/36 "2009-09-22T14:29:10Z")
I happened to be listening (God knows why) to Michael Medved in my car the day after the DC Bagger rally, and he was devoting a lot of time to trying to argue that racism had nothing to do with it. He was taking calls from people claiming to have been there and asking them why they were there to try to prove thy weren’t racist. Several of them said they were there because they wanted “freedom,” and that “Our rights are being taken away.” None of them ever stated exactly what rights had been taken away from them, and Medved didn’t ask, but that’s the kind of nonsensical, irrational non-answer to the question of teabagger rage that wasn’t present in the anti-Bush demnstrations. At least those protesters could point to some kind actual, tangible point of contention. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/37 "2009-09-22T15:06:44Z")
> [@PoorYorick](#): > > This seems to me to be the biggest difference between the “Bush is Evil” and “Obama is Evil” protests. Whether you agree with the motives for it or not, the Iraq War is _real_ and tangible, it’s a done deal. What the Right (for want of a better term) is protesting seems to be perceived intent, a much slippier thing. The number-one issue for them is federal spending, and the massive growth of the deficit. That’s all a bunch of paper, but it is nonetheless real, and will have real effects soooner or later if/when the US government starts cutting services, defaulting on debt, or (as I expect) we keep printing money and we have 10% inflation in 2015. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/38 "2009-09-22T15:27:24Z")
I don’t buy that the issue is spending. They weren’t staging rallies when Bush did it. They weren’t painting Hitler mustaches on him and calling him a “socialist.” They weren’t saying they “wanted their country back.” Obama inherited this recession, he didn’t cause it, and the bailouts were supported by both Bush and Mccain, so that’s all just contrived, bullshit excuse making. What’s the reason for Obama as the Joker? I still don’t get that one? And what the hell is [this crap](http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/politicalwhore/files/2009/07/obama-witchdoctor-muck.jpg)? That’s about federal spending? Really? These people are way too stupid to understand something as complex as the stimulus package anyway. Health care either. It’s not like the have the capacity to read, comprehend and analyze thousands of pages of poilicy. These idiots can’t even spell their own signs right half the time. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/39 "2009-09-22T15:41:23Z")
> [@furt](#): > > The number-one issue for them is federal spending, and the massive growth of the deficit. So they say NOW. Where were they the last 8 years? ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841/40 "2009-09-22T15:41:36Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I don’t buy that the issue is spending. They weren’t staging rallies when Bush did it. They weren’t painting Hitler mustaches on him and calling him a “socialist.” They weren’t saying they “wanted their country back.” No, they reacted more constructively. Shocked into action by the economic excesses of Bush’s first term, millions of people dove into furious study of economics during his second. Graduation day coincided, quite coincidentally, with Obama’s election to the Presidency, in a cacophonic clash of Elgar and “Hail to the Chief.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-personally-know-someone-whos-been-to-a-tea-party-or-yelled-at-a-town-hall/510841.md?page=3)