Tax Day Tea Party: Grassroots or astroturf?

Earlier today, PIM staffer Dan Feidt postedabout the liberaltheory that tonight’s Tax Day Tea Party at the Capitol is astroturf as opposed to real grassroots.I ask you, readers, to check out that map on the left (click to enlarge).That’s the map that Tea Party organizers sent to media.

That’s about as grassroots as you can get. [OK, I'll grant you that some expensive astroturf firm might have thought up the idea of the childlike-drawn map, and if so, well done.]

I’ve witnessed hundreds of rallies at the Capitol, so I consider myself a quasi-expert on whether a rally is about real people who are mad as hell (the grassroots) or people who are organized by professionals (the astroturf) to look like they are mad as hell.

I’m off to the Capitol and will report back here tonight or tomorrow.

If anyone is still thinking about whether to come to the Capitol, here’s the schedule of speakers. [.pdf link]

By the way, I wrote nice big fat checks to the U.S. Treasury and the MN Department of Revenue today. I am definitely mad as hell. Of course, I compounded my madness by waiting in line at the U.S. Post Office.

No Responses to “Tax Day Tea Party: Grassroots or astroturf?”

1. Anonymous Says:
   April 15th, 2009 at 8:16 pm

   I was really disappointed with the unprofessional tone of the earlier PIM post parroting the liberal line on the #teaparty movement. They can call us Right-wing Extremists if it makes them feel better about spending our children’s inheritance. I attended a #teaparty here in Slayton, Minnesota, tonight. The organizer isn’t a professional politician. The organizer isn’t a professional organizer. She isn’t even an unprofessional organizer. She’s a concerned citizen who wanted to give the west end of the First Congressional District a chance to stand up for freedom and the Constitution of the United States of America.

2. Anonymous Says:
   April 15th, 2009 at 8:47 pm

   “Life/Death?” LOL. That’s amazing.

   And we were definitely mad as hell at our tea party.

3. Anonymous Says:
   April 16th, 2009 at 11:38 am

   With all due respect, Ms. Janecek, how — precisely — does a hand-drawn map equate to a grassroots movement?

   I suspect that if you actually dug deep enough, you’d find it was organized by professionals who strove hard to make it look like it was a spontaneous idea of just plain, old folks. In fact, I’ll just bet that at the very bottom of this little gathering, you’ll find a tax-exempt organization.

   By the way, if you set your withholding high enough, you won’t have to write out a large check. Heck, you might even get a refund.