Tax Day Tea Party: Who is John Galt? Where is John Galt?

In this era of uber-control over signs at political gatherings, the most striking feature at last night’s Minnesota Tax Day Tea Party rally at the Capitol was the sea of homemade signs.

Sure, a Google search of many of the phrases on tea party signs shows thatmany of them have been used in our political discourse many a time before.

And, perhaps I did single out "Who is John Galt" because Ayn Rand was a crucial part of my college self-education on conservative thought.For those who skipped Rand, John Galt is a fictional character in what many consider to be her most significant novel, Atlas Shrugged."Who is John Galt" is an individually expressed yet at the same time collective expression of helplessness and despair at the state of political affairs in the novel.

[For my money, though, Rand's The Fountainhead is the best Rand novel, and when I find a real Howard Roark, I'll marry him.]

To those on the left who believe that the tea party rallies were zombielike affairs in which Fox News television viewers marched to conservative think tank orders, I suggest you leave your computer screens and attend one of these rallies sometime.

Because what you’ll see is what I saw last night:real people of all ages, but notably lots of younger families with children loaded into strollers, who invested hours of their free time to get to the Capitol, find a place to park and parade those homemade signs for few hours.That’s genuine political expression.

And what’s on these people’s minds — and homemade signs?

"Read MY teleprompter, no more bailouts!"

"You can’t fix stupid but you can vote it out."

"’Just because you don’t take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.’ Pericles."

"Give us the Geithner tax break."

"Federal Reserve, the world’s greatest Ponzi scheme."

"Congress is a child abuser.They are robbing kids (sic) piggy banks."

"I am an American, not a right wing extremist."

"Remember 58 million people did not vote for him."

"Stop Chebama."

"Now I’M for change."

"Future green jobs = no jobs now."

"Read the bill the next time."

And lest anyone think this was strictly a Republican crowd:

"Republicans no longer represent us, they resent us."

My personal favorite?

"I used all my stimulus to make this damn sign!"

Some other notes:

The speaker schedule wasn’t that inspiring, with one exception: Harold Hamilton, Micro Control Co. founder and Minnesota Watchdog blog author. Hamilton was the perfect person to deliver a "this [the federal debt, an out-of-control government] is not a Republican or Democratic issue, it’s everybody’s issue" message.

The official crowd estimate at Capitol rallies is always a bone of contention.As best I can tell, Capitol security didn’t give an "official" crowd estimate.Someone from the podium said 8,000.The Star Tribune said 2,000. My estimate was 4,000.That’s a far cry from major media estimates.

Four thousandpeople holding thousands of homemade signs ain’t astroturf.

One Response to “Tax Day Tea Party: Who is John Galt? Where is John Galt?”

1. Anonymous Says:
   April 16th, 2009 at 4:44 pm

   If you are interested in a follow up action that can extend the impact of the Tax Day Tea Parties, go to the web site go-galt.org and participate in the Atlas Shrugged Books-to-Politicians Campaign.

   Regards,
   –
   Jeffery Small
   go-galt.org

   P.S. I’m an architect, but happily married. Sorry!