Back in September when President Obama had high hopes for the now impossible passage of the health care bill, the Tea Party movement was just gaining attention. I had a two day shoot for The New York Times, one in Waco and the other in Dallas, to cover rallies by these people as they traversed the country towards Washington. The rallies culminated in a large overly stimulating and uneventful protest in the capital. I use the term “these people” in an unusually derogatory manner, at least for me. Let me explain…It is unimaginable for me to see how these people feel so strongly against Barack Obama and government in general, yet do so in such a hateful and ignorant manner. Forgetting the clearly ridiculous signs and shouts portraying Obama as a Nazi, which are so undeniably offensive it is barely worth noting, these claims of the Democrat’s direction towards socialism really get me going. How is having affordable health care socialist? How is raising taxes on overly rich people communist? Obama is so far for nationalizing government it is almost comedic to listen these critiques. I see this movement attracting more people. I am not so much offended by their expressing ignorant and hateful ideas, as much as I’m simply shocked by the ease at which people can believe this stuff. The likes of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are obviously just personalities looking to gain power, or maybe just money, but how can so many American’s follow their phony ideals so blindly. At times, I question the intelligence of this country. Even for a Republican party that is working non-stop to defame and humiliate our president with a no vote on everything, the Tea Party takes it to another level. Perhaps it will work against them…speaking out against the GOP may turn out hurting both the Tea Party and the old elephants.
What was so interesting at these rallies is the urgent desire to appeal toward peoples patriotic hearts as a method to attract followers. Is it really that patriotic to bash the president presiding over two wars and such a deep economic crisis?
Take a look at the great article by David Barstow on the NY Times website. He has a great article describing the general platform (or lack there of) for the Tea Party Movement. He does a great job describing how there is no one group which dominates or defines the ideology of the Tea Party. Rather, the party attracts a number of groups who have nowhere else to turn.
“The Tea Party movement defies easy definition, largely because there is no single Tea Party. At the grass-roots level, it consists of hundreds of autonomous Tea Party groups, widely varying in size and priorities, each influenced by the peculiarities of local history,” writes Barstow.
“Local Tea Party groups are often loosely affiliated with one of several competing national Tea Party organizations. In the background, offering advice and organizational muscle, are an array of conservative lobbying groups, most notably FreedomWorks. Further complicating matters, Tea Party events have become a magnet for other groups and causes — including gun rights activists, anti-tax crusaders, libertarians, militia organizers, the “birthers” who doubt President Obama’s citizenship, Lyndon LaRouche supporters and proponents of the sovereign states movement.”
I hope this works out in the end by making it difficult for any one leader to gain too much popularity as a result of trying to reach too many different ignorant minds.
The Times also ran a nice slide show which featured 5 of my photos. Despite running my images 5 months after I shot them, they did run a huge picture in color. That was pleasing.
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