Admissions against interest

Me too. Utterly aside from the merits of any of their positions, too.

When was the last time a momentary fit of pique achieved anything? I am not saying that is what this is. I am saying that IF these folks want to achieve anything, they'll need patience, clarity, ideas, and staying power.

Anger is a crappy fuel. And a transient symbolic action is a fart into the wind, whether its hands across America or the million man march. When it comes to things like the Tea Party and other efforts of this ilk, there is a usually fundamental flaw. And the flaw is that such activities usually only make the participants feel a little bit better, like they stood up and did something by being counted. But they seldom achieve anything lasting.

If there is a lie in the American myth of the efficacy of protest, it's that complaining achieves changes when practiced by dilettantes. Anger makes for a nice 20 yard sprint. But changing things is at least a marathon. More like an ironman triathlon. Or decathlon.

I'll preface this by saying I was around for the demonstrations in the 60's. I took part in a few but lost my taste for them early on. The majority (at least of the ones I was at) weren't about much more than youthful rebellion. A good reason to skip college classes for most, smoking dope and being cool for a lot, and being in with the in crowd for almost everyone. On stage we were treated to scrabbling for the spotlight between the SDS chapter, local black power group, and the Abbie Hoffman wannabes. Thoughtful debate about what was going on during that time was entirely lacking from what I saw. I was so turned against the idiocy I saw by the "youth movement" I haven't even considered going to a protest since.

I had business in downtown Anchorage yesterday, so I took the time to walk down to where the tea party was. Several hundred I'd guess. I took the time to talk to quite a few people. I wound up spending a couple of hours I couldn't afford to lose. Mostly middle age/middle class by their looks.

COMPLETELY different than the 60's. Most of the folks I talked to had taken time off from jobs to be there. There were a couple of idiots ("look at me!"), but everyone ignored them as best as possible. The thing that really struck me was the sense that most of the folks I talked to were uncomfortable about being there. They weren't the protesting type and didn't want to be seen as idiots, but felt it was important enough to be there. The majority I talked to (20?) didn't have a pat answer to what it was they were there for exactly. A lot of no tax signs, but the verbal conversations always fell back to fiscal conservatism. People are worried. Not so much about the present, the economy up here is still pretty good, but about the path we are likely to wind up on as a nation if we don't reign in government spending. I think everyone I talked to realizes the complexities even they aren't familar with them all. Not that I have any painless solutions, let alone anything that has an absolute guarantee of working.

A note about Alaskan history. Everyone knows about the pipeline. There was a huge economic boom in the early and mid 70's when it was built. Things leveled off a bit after the line was built and before the oil started flowing. About 1980 when the state started getting its royalties and started spending money hand over fist (Bush and Obama look like pikers compared to what that was like), there was a boom to beat all booms up here. Housing starts quadrupled and spiked up from there. Government grew exponetially. Good times doesn't even begin to cover it. I guess that things were tough during that time under Reagan but you couldn't tell it from up here. All it meant was more people were leaving the lower 48 and moving to booming Alaskan economy. After 4 years of this type of growth the inevitable bust. Overbuilt/overextended, and the price of oil dropped to $9 per barrel. The housing bubble burst in 2008? Whooptidoo. In '84 my house in Anchorage valued at about 200K wouldn't sell at 100K 3 months later. My small business had to eat over a quarter of our gross yearly revenues. That's over 5 years worth of profits!
The state didn't bail anyone out. Things sucked pretty hard for about 5 years. Everyone up here that's been around that long remembers that time. We know what that pain looks like more than most. We cut government spending, let the banks fail (11 out of 18), and generally sucked it up.

I heard the above story numerous times yesterday. The tea party I attended wasn't about taxes (at least the present ones), it was about fiscal conservatism. I'd assume the others around the country were pretty much the same. It can be done. In fact I think it is unavoidable. It just that now will be easier than later. Suck it up America.

As to Simon's question I'd say the purpose served is to let average working folks know that there are others just like them. We don't have exact solutions, we know we got ourselves into this mess, we don't believe that government is likely to get us out unless we force it into some sort of fiscal reality. These were serious people, not the freak shows you generally see at protests. Hopefully the message clarifies over time, and Washington is forced to listen to it. And hopefully the Hannity's and Gingrich's stay home next time. We don't need em. We don't want em.