POST-GAZETTE - Res Publica

MassGOP Welcomes Tea Party to Boston

by David Trumbull

April 16, 2010

Stephen Helfer of Cambridge with Tea Party-goers from Danvers and Lowell

MassGOP Chairman Jennifer Nassour released the following statement regarding Wednesday’s Tea Party rally on Boston Common:

"We welcome the Tea Party movement to Boston and it’s always exciting to witness democracy in action. Just like the American colonists in 1773 who protested against burdensome taxes, the Tea Party movement is a motivated group of voters who are disappointed with the party in power. Like Republicans, they’re tired of the way business is done – both on Beacon Hill and Capitol Hill. Our Republican candidates support controlling taxes and spending, and on the major fiscal issues that the Tea Party supports, they are going to find the most alignment with the GOP. It’s time to unite on the issues we can all agree upon and get Republican candidates elected in November 2010."

I was there and thrilled to hear Sarah Palin address the crowd. I should say, the very large crowd! My good friend Stephen Helfer helped out by taking down names in an attempt to get a more-or-less accurate count for the organizers. As we know, press reports of previous Tea Parties grossly under-reported the attendance.

There were people there to protest the protesters as well. The Tea Party supporters do not have a single coordinated message. Some carried signs protesting high taxes, others President Obama’s socialized medicine, others expressed their support for America’s ally in the Near East, Israel, many showed dissatisfaction with the current incumbents in Washington—especially the liberal Democratic majority. The anti-Tea Party protesters, on the other hand, were united. Their signs were all the same: denunciations of the Tea Party movement as racists and homophobic—two things that, as far as I could tell, have nothing at all to do with the Tea Party. Perhaps the anti-Tea Party people as just suffering acute PDS—Palin Derangement Syndrome—where the mere existence of Sarah Palin drives you into a state on incoherence and paranoia.


[David Trumbull is the chairman of the Boston Ward Three Republican Committee. Boston's Ward Three includes the North End, West End, part of Beacon Hill, downtown, waterfront, Chinatown, and part of the South End.]

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