In the Antelope Valley, on April 15th of 2010, there were two tea parties. They were at different locations and had different organizers.
It is hard to say if either of them were successful.
The first was a demonstration in a parking lot at a busy intersection. People held signs and waved banners. Observers honked their horns in encouragement as they went by. Due to all the good cheer it was considered a resounding success.
The second was a table at the post office that had after-hours service. A patron could go into the post office and buy a dated stamp that, since it had the date, guaranteed your income tax forms were mailed before midnight even though there were no postal employees there.
At the table, a very small group of people handed out reading material to the people in the very long line. This material included the Libertarian Party’s Cut Taxes brochure, stuffed with political quizzes and with the Obama 1040 for entertainment value.
We had over 200 pamphlets, and we handed out all of them. People read them in line, and took them home as well. We actually got information into peoples’ hands.
The protest ran from about 7 pm to 10 pm when we ran out of materials.
We were also very helpful to those who didn’t know what was going on. We explained about the date-stamps, why people were waiting in line, about how if you simply dropped your mail in the box then it would be post-marked the next day. People were really appreciative of our help. It is somewhat ironic that we were helping people file their taxes on time, but it made a big difference to the people involved.
While nobody honked their horns at us, it was from our point of view a success, perhaps more of one than the larger rally that accomplished nothing. Lesson learned? If you want a Tea Party to mean something, and you know that the announced parties are Astroturf, go ahead and do your own Tea Party.
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aynrkey
bostonteapartygoer
Kenn Jacobine
mattdharris
Mike Seebeck
Miche
paulie
Jim Davidson
ponggod
Stuart Richards
Todd Andrew Barnett
There are, I humbly suggest, good libertarians, and bad libertarians. Good libertarians defend civil liberties and uphold Constitutional rights (not only the 2nd Amendment, but all of ‘em). They understand something about the principles of Jefferson and Madison (and are aware of the hypocrisy of some founders, including Jefferson). They oppose theocracy. The also oppose useless and bloated govt. programs and excessive taxation on middle class, and poor. That doesn’t mean necessarily blessing laissez-faire across the board, or opposing any and all govt. intervention.
The bad, or shall we say Vegas-style libertarian, tends to denounce any and all govt. intervention. They are against taxation and gun control of any type, and tend to approve of capitalism in all forms, gambling, liquor, legalized drugs and prostitution. This isn’t the place to get into a lengthy discussion of gun control or legalizing drugs or prostitution, but obviously those practices do produce harm and tend to exploit people, usually the poor. There’s a big difference between protesting high taxes (or what seem to be high taxes) or excessive govt. spending, and arguing for legal prostitution or narcotics.
I have read a bit of Ayn Rand. While she may have supported “good libertarianism” to some degree–she did bless the American founders, and liberty, and even opposed the Divine Right of Kings (as did Locke)–she generally approved of big business and capitalism in any form. Many who are not wealthy might argue for middle class tax breaks, but not tax breaks for Billy Gates, Meg Whitman, or Rupert Murdoch–progressive taxation is the proper course of action (even Nixon-era moderates agreed with that).
Miss Rand generally did not perceive a difference between average Americans and the ostentatiously wealthy–indeed, she was on the side of the financial barons and industrialists, the John Galts of the USA. Ergo, Rand was on the whole a bad libertarian as is her follower Ron Paul (and the gold-standard nuts).
Finally, let’s not forget that the military/DoD takes more from payroll taxes than do social programs. Even the Divine Ayn at times protested US defense spending, did she not–at one time she joined some of the ‘Nam protesters–tho’ probably for the wrong reasons (ie, this costs too much! not, civilians are being slaughtered and napalmed to death….).