The Beginning
My first set of photographs of Tea party participants is nearly exhausted. The message the people who gathered was clear and undiluted. There is a groundswell building. It will not go away unless the path our government has chosen changes to be for the People and by the People once again.I am going to end this series with a few faces from the crowds. The crowd is getting larger, and more discontented. Should the government fear them? Yes, they should. This crowd wields the most powerful weapon in existence. They believe in themselves, their country, and they vote. It is only beginning.......
Labels: Faces of a Revolution, Photographs
posted by Xavier at 12:06 PM
7 Comments:
There is another national Tea Party being organized for the 4th of July.
Hope y'all will attend one.
Just so you know, your photos of the Tea Party people is something that needs a wider audience.
I thank you for posting them here.
Best regards,
Gale_H
The overall series really lacks context and emotion. It shows well fed, comfortable people who will risk nothing remotely close to a revolution.
One can only hope that realization of what we have allowed to happen is not occurring too late for recovery.
It would be enlightening to ask what they were doing last November and in the months leading up to the debacle at the polls.
Ironic that one guy in one of the photos has on an "NWO" (New World Order) t-shirt.
I wouldn't get too enthusiastic over this "beginning", and the reason can be found in your photographs. I don't see a lot of young people at that protest, and I don't see a lot of minorities, either.
The truth, to be blunt, is that American politics still revolve mostly around demographics, and the number of Americans who are fed up with deficits, spending, and taxes are vastly outnumbered by the people who believe that government has a responsibility to provide certain services to the citizenry, regardless of cost or implications.
The main reason this political gap exist is that beginning two generations ago, Republicans began having smaller families, which leads us to our current predicament. We simply don't have as many voters as the other side does. Now, you can make the argument that people can switch parties, but I don't see that happening to the degree necessary to stop or even slow this inevitable trend, and that trend is towards a regional party, mostly comprised of White, middle class, Protestants. The same group of folks that started having fewer kids back in the 1960s.
My thoughts on immigration have always been depending on the people immigrating. Now, to deny the enormous contributions that immigrants have made to this Nation, since the beginning of the 20Th century, would be foolish. We must, however, accept the fact that most immigrants arriving today favor a more robust and active government; the type of government that the Democratic party represents.
Add to that another factor, which is that most undocumented immigrants are poor, and lack an education, which makes them more inclined to support a party that offers them the most benefits and government services. The type of benefits that the GOP is philosophically against. This is why it should come as no surprise that Democrats are big fans of immigration.
Add this up, and you get a Republican party that is dying out. A party that mostly represents the interest of a low birthrate constituency, with little chance of increasing their appeal, because of their fundamental belief that government should be small in size and small in scope, while the other side uses government programs to lure new voters into the fold; immigrants that don't like their odds of affording the sort of necessities they need, and see government as a means to an end.
To summarize, the GOP isn't losing the war of ideas, it's losing the war of demographics, and that means that we are evolving into a socialist nanny state, because that's honestly what more and more people want. After all, compare the size of the pro amnesty protest, a few years back, and the Obama crowds, during the election, to the size of the Tea Parties. It's not even close.
So the only way the GOP can win is by becoming the low calorie version of the Democratic party, and move to the left (what Powell would call the center), and try to expand the size of the tent. I don't think that will work, though, but for reasons I won't bore you with. :)
Sorry to be so long winded. I don't like being a stick in the mud, but I don't see a way to reverse the course our nation has took.
Terrific blog, BTW.
I disagree Photographer. It shows many people who have risked quite a bit for what they believe in. Many have volunteered to go to war for what they believe in. Will they again? That remains to be seen, but revolutions start somewhere.
Organizing the vote is the key to peaceful revolution in this country. We shall see the results in a year and a half, and then again in three and a half years. Time will tell.
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