TEA PARTIERS ON BOSTON COMMON, April 14, 2010

The Boston Common has been the site of many a protest. I remember witnessing them during the Iraq War protests. The Common has also been the site of the famous Boston Freedom Rally every September. Today, April 14, 2010, it was the Tea Party's turn to show up and show us their slogans.

The crowd was not as large as the one that assembled for the Iraq War protest--sizable, yes, but not huge. In fact, I would say it wasn't very large at all, considering that this was a beautiful spring day in Beantown.

I spoke to a few of the Tea Partiers and asked them very politely why they were there. The common answer was "to send a message to Washington," and "to take back our country." When I asked a few of the TPs why they felt they had to "take back their country," their answers were not very clear or specific. The answers were rather vague and, not surprisingly, very Beckish. A lot of them proudly admitted to being fans of Beck and Fox News. No surprise there

When I asked them if they were as upset with Mr. Bush when he mortgaged their children's future to fight the Iraqi war of choice, they didn't answer me, instead, they changed the subject and said Mr. Obama doubled the debt in one year. They all agreed that the passage of health care reform was part of Mr. Obama's plan to turn the US into a socialistic country. Plan? When I asked them if they or any of their relatives were on Social Security or Medicare and if that made us a socialistic country, they had no answer for me.

I met a number of college students--Suffolk University is just down the block from the Common, and Emerson is nearby. The students all were carrying anti-Palin signs, and were very supportive of the president. This seems to be the norm nationally--young people are still one of Mr. Obama's strongest demographic supporters. I saw very few carrying signs for Palin.

I spent most of my time mingling with the crowd and talking to people. I heard Sarah Palin speak, but I can't remember a thing she said.

My camera ran out of charge before I could capture some really clever signs, but a delightful man standing in the crowd had his camera with him and offered to email me those that I missed (he's an amateur photographer). We had a very pleasant chat and discovered that we grew up in the same neighborhoods around greater Boston. I hope he sends me the photos he took soon so I can post them.

My take on this whole phenomenon is that there is real anger out there, but it is selective, and IMHO, directed at a man who had nothing to do with the difficulties we faced in the beginning of 2009. Bush, as you'll recall, inherited a $128 billion budget surplus from Bill Clinton when he took office in 2001. Bush quickly squandered that and then proceeded to rack up gigantic budget deficits every year of his two terms in office.

Under Bush, the national debt grew by more than $4 trillion: the biggest debt increase of any president in U.S. history.

Where were the angry tea partiers then?

When Bush took office in 2001, the national debt stood at $5.7 trillion. At the end of Bush's two terms, the debt had skyrocketed to more than $9.849 trillion. And remember: Bush enjoyed a Republican Senate and House of Representatives during most of his time in office.

This movement is all so puzzling to me and to many others who wonder why people are so angry now, and not when George W. Bush oversaw the collapse of our economy.

I have my own suspicions, but right now, this movement has gathered momentum, and it is based on a lot of misinformation and confusion, abetted by people like Palin who stand to make a lot of money encouraging that confusion and fear.