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DC Tax Day Tea Party 2: The Bad

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by Tommy Christopher | 5:16 pm, April 16th, 2010

» 11 comments

During yesterday’s Freedomworks Tea Party, speakers made frequent references to “infiltrators,” people who might seek to embarrass the Tea Party by posing as a member and acting in an offensive manner. The scheme is the brainchild of Oregon schoolteacher Jason Levin, who’s now been suspended with pay because of it.

The crowd was told to watch out for any offensive signs, so the event’s organizers could eject them. While mingling with the crowd, some Tea Partiers pointed out 2 young men who they called infiltrators, but who really were just openly satirizing the movement. I interviewed them and the man who pointed them out to me. Check out who’s the “good,” and who’s the “bad,” plus my collection of the most offensive signs from this event.

The infiltration idea was just stupid, especially because this guy chose to publicize it. If your position is that Tea Parties are full of violent, racist signage, all this scheme does is give them cover for it. The 2 young men at yesterday’s event, though, were not trying to blend in, but instead, were overtly parodying the Tea Party.

The Tea Partiers around them really impressed me with their calm, reasonable reactions, something I suppose the lamestream media doesn’t often show.

As testament to Freedomworks’ commitment to keeping the ugliest sentiments outside its event, the over-the-line sign hunt yielded slim pickings, and aside from some extraneous apostrophes and quotation marks, most of the signs were grammatically correct.

Here’s a selection of the most offensive signs, although I noted a much higher percentage of “socialism”-themed signs than at last year’s Tea Party. While not as “click-friendly,” these are a much better indicator of the baseline temperature of this movement’s passion. These, and various tax-and-patriotism-themed signs made up about 99% of this event’s signs.

Counter-protester Alex Lawson contributed photos of these two crude signs with violent themes:

This one’s actually kind of funny, depending on your Rorschach reading of the word “plant.”

This one is offensive in its lameness. “Poop?” Are you six?

While some might appreciate the turnabout here, this is one of several signs that were less-than-appropriate for the “ladies” Mr. Prince was concerned about.

According to this guy, the President is like a Rolo, only instead of creamy caramel, he’s filled with murderous terrorist.

The obligatory Nazi comparison.

For future referfence, this guy is not, I repeat not, a vendor.

A lovingly rendered portrait of post-adultery imagery, mitigated slightly by the fact that she doesn’t have the President smoking a cigarette.

“Pull the plug” with your votes, right?

Finally, I love the specificity of this guy’s sign, like he’s the Zagat’s of political protest.

ImNotBlue

I disagree with the “036″ (the PooP picture). It’s completely juvenile… but it did get a chuckle out of me. Hehehe… poop.

I don’t think 077 (the bed picture) is a sexual reference… rather, just a “dream” reference, hence “sleeping.” There’s also the metaphor of “being in bed together,” as in “of the same team,” but not necessarily a sex metaphor.

I think the problem with the anti-protest signs (095, the last one), is that they’re really dull… and the inevitably, the person holding the sign is on the phone. Why is it that Liberal protesters are ALWAYS on the phone?!

I imagine the conversation in that picture to be something like this:
“Hey yeah… I’m at the protest… just holding up my sign. Hold on, I’ll twitter it. Yeah, updated Facebook too. I think I’m going to start waving the sign a bit. Yeah, let me update that I’m waving. Yeah, okay… great. So, do you have any extra granola, or should I hit the Whole Foods on the way home?”

Oh well… poop. Hehehe.
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

So that’s the worst the Tea Party has to offer? It all seems a lot more benign to me than this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msc34EwzyAA&feature=player_embedded
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

It also seems a lot less offensive than this:

http://www.anonymousfinch.com/2010/03/27/democratic-cognitive-dissonance/
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

Tommy, thanks for the completely fair coverage. Very well done.
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

Tommy:

Here:

http://www.anonymousfinch.com/2010/04/16/tea-party-counter-protesters-called-out-on-their-bogus-claims-of-racism/

is a video of a counter-protesters at the DC rally who claim they saw “a few” confederate flags flying at the protest. Did you see any confederate flags? I assume that if you had it would have made it into your gallery of the worst signs.
Cecelia

I think some of the signs are funny, and the majority of them are innocuous.

However, I was appalled by Michele Bachmann’s statement about the administration being a gangster govt.

That sort of hyperbole is over the top. It’s completely ridiculous and discrediting.
Latin2

The majority of tea party people are well educated.
DCopperfield

Cecelia says:
“However, I was appalled by Michele Bachmann’s statement about the administration being a gangster govt.”

Okay. Perhaps a review of satirical political cartoons and political commentary in the press throughout our Republic’s history would dull your sensitivities a bit to such rhetoric.

Occasionally I call my representatives, “Communists”. I don’t know it they are really Communists, but I express my displeasure with their actions by naming them this “ist”. Sometimes they respond to the bait. Sometimes they do not. (I hope that me using this word does not offend you.)

C’est la vie. With or without my hyperbole. ;-)
Latin2

Were people appalled when Reid and others were calling Bush names while they were also in office?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/05/07/politics/main693713.shtml

Now were they appalled with that?
drex94

mommy mommy -he hit me first…lololo
http://www.facebook.com/people/Gary-Wile/1433479796 Gary Wile

Hey,

That’s me carrying the PooP poster it stands for People Opposed to Obama’s Policies. I saw another one that said People Opposing Overspending Politicians, that my be better yet. It’s not all Obama’s fault. And you may know by now that Tea Party Members are after all politicians Republican and Democrat alike that are not fically responsible.

Gimoni