I crashed their tea party and spoiled their day.
It was a very rich and educational political experience.
I had two signs, two T-shirts, and a button, which I alternated.
- Sign: “INDEPENDENCE FOR IRAQ: withdraw all troops, close all bases, save $3 trillion!”
- Sign: “LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE/there is no democracy/without equal civil rights”
- Shirt: “FUCK WALL STREET/I’d rather have healthcare”
- Shirt: The other had a picture of Obama laughing and dropping pennies:
“Thanks for your vote/here’s your change” - The button simply said “glbt ally”
I wore a very wide reflective shiny pair of sunglasses to look badass. It would be me against the world so I could use the psychological edge.
As you can see, my signs were designed to expose the tea-baggers and their hypocritical nature. They don’t support “freedom” – they don’t support civil rights for gays. They’re happy to get taxed $3 trillion if a conservative is doing it and it’s for war – not if it’s a Democrat for social services. They all rail against big institutions like the Government and Wall Street, and my T-shirt tried to show them that they shouldn’t oppose socialized healthcare since passing it would be an attack on Wall Street. Hypocrites. I definitely made them uncomfortable.
My objectives:
- Demoralize them by breaking their unanimity. The people at those tea parties are possibly the future of the possible emerging American fascist movement. Best to make them second-guess themselves before it gets that far. (achieved)
- Creating a pole of attracting for opposition, emboldening anti-tea party hecklers. (achieved)
Exposing their hypocrisy to passersby, and maybe themselves. (both achieved) - Convincing perhaps a handful of tea-baggers or hostile passersby that socialism is not the enemy, and indeed is possibly the answer. (…probably not achieved)
- Recruiting to the ISO, or at least spreading readership of Socialist Worker. (neither achieved)
- Building my political nerve, capacity to be physically present and psychologically stable in the face of overwhelming opposition, and handling/countering heckling from crowds which may be hostile. (achieved)
- Begin countering the tendency among leftists to be utterly afraid to challenge anything with an American flag on it, and to challenge right-wingers at their most confident moments, when they think they will gather uncontested. (achieved)
At first I walked in, wearing simply a blank white shirt with my political ones in my backpack, and with my signs folded up so no one could see. I wanted to drift through the crowd and check out what the sentiment was before I launched my attack.
Their signs said…
“Audit the Fed!!” (I told the sign-holder that I absolutely agreed with him)
“SOCIALISM: $787 billion/CAPITALISM: PRICELESS” (I corrected this guy later)
“No more tax funds for abortions/protect human baby rights”
“Say no to Obama-care! No national healthcare!” (Call Congress, phone number, etc.)
“Madoff got 150 years, we’ll give Obama only four years”
“The new face of slavery! (Obama’s face) Heavy taxes=heavy load/
This is Obama’s new plantation!” (All slavery references by middle-class white people are clearly racially motivated by reverse-racism paranoia or outright racism…more on their racism later)
“Enforce our immigration laws!” (again, I will cover the racism later)
“Stop the generational tax/we pick up the tab” (held by younger people…good point)
And the absolute best…
“SUPPORT THE TROOPS/WE’LL NEED THEM FOR THE COUP!”
I later shouted at the teenage female holding this sign that she was doing a great job supporting democracy on the 4th of July by supporting a coup against an elected official. Jesus Christ. My confrontation left her knowing that her irresponsible talk of right-wing insurrection would not be welcome among the general public. (Of course, I do the same thing from the left wing by calling for workers’ revolution. Heh.)
Unfortunately very little in the way of outlandish clothing. Just one conspiracy theorist in an old-fashioned three-tipped colonial-era hat.
I heard some old guy on a microphone which was too quiet giving some extremely unlively speech which did include a statement that we are all slaves. He had some vague, unconvincing analysis of when we lost our freedom…something about difficulty in starting up small businesses. Loser. I checked out everyone’s sign, made small talk, and had some signup sheet shoved at me. I signed it Jake Black, gave Jake a fake Gmail address and passed it on.
Early in the rally, conflict arose, started not by me. The Tea Party was happening adjacent to a restaurant. An old veteran wearing a baseball cap that said “Obama” and had American flag designs started shouting at them. I couldn’t tell what he was shouting but he was hopping mad.
After the old man in the Obama hat opened up the debate, I figured that the battle was already raging so it was time to come out of the closet. I put on my “FUCK WALL STREET” shirt and went up to the porch and unfurled my Iraq sign. They all knew what side I was on very quickly.
Once I was clearly involved in the argument, one of the people arguing with the old guy (all of them seemed to be vets) asked if I was ever in the military. I said I never was and (emphatically) I definitely never intend to be. He said that it was the military that defended my right to even state my opinion. I said no, it was labor warriors, like the Anarchists who fought for the 8-hour day in the 1880s and the Communist Party who fought for my wages in the 1930s. Because what’s free speech if you’re working or starving all day? They didn’t like my answer. They called me a socialist. I confirmed that. They didn’t know what to say to that. One told me to move to Russia. I said if he thought the USA was socialist, maybe he should move there. A lot of stammering after that one.
One of them said that if we withdrew from Iraq “we would give them another victory” like in Vietnam. I repeated his ridiculous claim – “give them another victory?” I said I would be happy to give a victory to a country that has its own people and deserves their own sovereignty. He shook his head, he didn’t like that idea. (?)
A woman who I later saw holding an anti-immigrant sign approached me while holding my gay marriage sign and asked if I had ever read the Bible. I said I had and I found it pretty unconvincing. She then shouted that I needed to really read it, implying that I obviously hadn’t read it for real…like I just said I had. Then she kept railing that God did not permit what my sign called for, and I just kept telling her that I didn’t care what the hell God said because I didn’t believe in him anyhow. Religion was not the dispute I came to start…I wanted to focus on economics, foreign policy, and civil rights. But as I am increasingly seeing, God damn it, religion is an issue in politics, as I am sure I will see in the gay rights fight coming to TCNJ. I still don’t think that it is the job of socialists or any progressives to make a case for atheism but I can better understand the argument for atheism as one (of many) progressive forces.
After that died down a bit I talked to him. He was a true progressive, he supported everything my materials said. Seemed to wince when I mentioned socialism to the other side, so I didn’t bother asking for his contact info.
I then passed to the other side of the street, because I figured that the restaurant owner would kick me off their porch soon if I didn’t do it first myself. Also I wanted to clearly distinguish myself from the tea party for passersby and be able to interact with them.
A disturbingly high amount of passing cars were giving sympathetic honks to the tea-baggers, though a few people really liked my gay marriage sign. I realized that a lot of people were probably just honking at the tea-baggers because they were waving American flags, and didn’t realize that it was a conservative rally. A Latino family on a second-floor balcony across the street was watching casually, occasionally cheering whenever someone waved an American flag. I noticed some anti-immigrant sentiment in the tea party, so I figured maybe the Latino family was also in this situation. I walked over to talk to them, from the ground-level sidewalk. I showed them my signs, and explained I wasn’t with the tea party, and just what exactly the tea party was. When I told them it was sort of an anti-Obama rally they looked very upset. They liked my causes, pretty unanimously said they wanted out of Iraq (even brought up Afghanistan) and supported gay marriage. They basically switched over to my side.
In fact, when some tea-baggers crossed to my side of the street with flags and other crap to try to diminish my presence to passersby, the Latinos shouted to me that I should hold my turf and keep them off “my” side of the street. I said I was all alone, maybe they should come down and help me.
Four of them...did. Four of their young guys came down, fanned out, crossed their arms and gave dirty looks to all the tea-baggers on my side until they chickened out and went back to their side of the street. They did this with almost tactical precision, in formation, like it was something they did on a regular basis. More likely they just had chemistry, they were family.
There are no words. What an awesome, spontaneous display of both solidarity and bad-assery.
Occasionally the Latinos would heckle the tea-baggers and yell something like “Go Obama!” A passing tea-bagger on a bike replied:
“You need to fuckin’ learn to speak English.”
(They were speaking fine English in American accent.)
I called after him that he was racist. Didn’t seem to bother him.
Soon enough a car full of Latinos would roll by shouting and heckling, calling them all “racist motherfuckers.” Totally deserved.
There was definitely a political race line. There was not a single Black or Latino on the tea party side. Most of them I encountered checked out what I was about and were all glad I was there.
The pro-life woman yelled at me that maybe I should read some of the history of this great country and see what it was really about. I informed her that I am in fact a history major. She said then why are you saying such ridiculous things. I said I could because I am certified to do so.
When I heckled the kid for her pro-coup-against-Obama sign, she told me that what I was proposing (gay marriage) was just unnatural. I told her that her iPod was unnatural.
Various people said they would pray for me. I almost sarcastically told them that I would pray to Satan for them too, to get a rise, but I bit my lip on that one, since there were some of them with whom I actually wanted to try communicating.
Sparked by my Iraq sign, someone across the street said that I could thanks George W Bush for the “current independence” of the people of Iraq. I said they weren’t free under Saddam, they’re not free now until the last soldier and based and oil company leaves, and the only way they’ll be free is if they do what the people of Iran are doing, and that’s the only answer. Nobody had a response to that since everyone loves the Iranian uprising except stupid Stalinist assholes like Workers’ World Party.
I was holding the gay marriage sign and a tea-bagger leaving on bike confronted me:
Tea-bagger on a bike: “This isn’t San Francisco.”
Me: “I’d like to make it that way.”
TBoaB: “This ISN’T San Francisco.”
Me: “It will be. Change is coming. Get ready.”
TBoaB: (frustrated grunting)
So many of these bastards just want to hit you with these thought-terminating clichés: “this is the way it is, this is the way it will stay.” “Ni**ger-lover” is also just such a fruitful-conversation-ende
One woman leaving the Tea Party tried to tell me (because of my gay marriage sign) that children need a mother and father figure each. I asked why, she moved on. She said that homosexuality is unnatural. I told her that her polaroid camera is unnatural. She said God gave us brains to invent, so I countered, yes, we invented homosexuality with our brains. Then I admitted I wasn't religious so I couldn't really argue that anyway. She said she would pray for me. She said there was probably something that happened in my past that made me gay...I informed her I was straight. She was astounded by that.
The owner of the restaurant I was standing near came out and complimented my “Legalize Gay Marriage” sign. Probably has gay clientele.
I drifted back over to their side of the street.
I tried having a real discussion with someone across the street. I wanted to at least try to connect to some of the tea-baggers on the basis of discontent with the bailout and the economy. I approached the man whose sign said “SOCIALISM: $787 billion/CAPITALISM: priceless.” I explained to him that I am a real socialist and that I was totally against the bailout because it was taking money from the poor to the rich.
He tried telling me that when I was older and paying bills, what he was saying would make sense. I said that my whole political thinking is based on standing up for real ordinary people who work long hours and pay steep bills, and that’s exactly why I’m a socialist.
He told me that if you’re liberal when your twenty you’re thoughtless, but if you’re liberal when you’re forty, you’re hopeless. I told him I would come back and find him as a hopeless Marxist in twenty years, and that if I felt like it I could come up with some dumb phrase, too. I didn’t stoop to actually proving I could.
We got to talking about the difficulties of running a small business and I said yes it was true, and said that socialists are in favor of getting rid of a lot of the bullshit they have to put up with, as well as forcing banks to give them cheap loans. (Yeah, that’s true, read “Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight It” by Trotsky.)
He asked me why socialism hasn’t worked very well. I told him that every time people try it, governments tend to shoot the people who are organizing for it. He asked me when such a thing had ever happened in the USA.
I gave him the example of troops being sent in to quash the general strike of 1919 in Seattle. He blamed this event on the dawn of progressivism, and I tried to explain to him that it was the unions getting troops called on them, not the other way around.
He tried to tell me that when he owned a restaurant, his employees loved him. I shrugged and said that some slaves love their masters.
Whatever, nothing good came out of that discussion. At least it was civil.
Sad conversation among right-wingers about why the 2008 campaign failed…McCain too old, Palin too young…or may bad policies, hello? Looking forward to 2012, when “the country will be ready.” (Maybe if Obama doesn’t follow through on enough promises, the country will be nice and hopeless and ready to vote Republican again, yeah.) Republicans are really, really grasping at straws and coming up with no answers.
One old man who was clearly on the Tea-Bagger side complimented me at the end for sticking to my guns, despite being solo. I already knew I had guts but his acknowledgement was gratifying. Respect from the enemy…some of the best respect you can get.
Several tea-baggers said to me that they are actually completely fine with gay marriage, though they did not speak up when the religious fanatics were after me over that issue. This is proof that my tactics worked and I demoralized their side by splitting their sense of unity, even if they just admitted it to me off to the side and didn’t shout it in front of everyone.
I drifted back to “my” side of the street.
It was getting to be the end of the tea party, so it was time for my last, most devious act.
I put my signs down, reached into my backpack, and to the horror of the tea-baggers, and unfurled the RED BANNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST ORGANIZATION (typed in caps to portray their shock). I asked for five minutes of their time. The pro-lifer (to whom I had previously declared that fetuses are not human beings) just ranted at me that I was out of my mind for a minute. I just smiled because I figured, hey, we’re all a bunch of extremist wack-jobs here. She finished up, and the rest of the crowd seemed polite enough to listen. My speech was very short and simple because I knew they wouldn’t tolerate anything over a few sentences. I totally made it up on the spot, and went something like this:
“People of the Tea Party,
I am not here to insult you. There is just something I would like you to know.
I know that many of you are here because you are upset about taxes.
I know that many of you don’t like the bail-out. You call it socialistic.
Well, I am a real socialist. I am not for Obama.
Obama is NOT a socialist. Obama is a capitalist.
I am against the bail-out because it was taking from the poor and giving to the ruling class, taking from the working-class and giving to rich bankers.
Please keep in mind that real socialists are out there and we want what is best for the working class.
Thank you for your time.”
I neither received nor expected applause, but nobody argued with me. I think they never expected to be confronted with a real socialist who was not their stereotype an evil scheming Jewish conspirator with a job in media or government, but someone who really stood for the working class, whether exploited by their employers or by government intervention. I am sure that some of them will never forget their first encounter with a real socialist.
Some conspiracy nut told me to look up “the creature from Jekyll Island” because he sort of agreed with my complaints against the way the bailout was done. It seems to be a conspiracy theory about the Federal Reserve. A lot of that going around these days. Capitalism is the problem, people, not a single one of its representative institutions. Think systematically.
My ISO signup sheet remained blank. Not surprising. But worth a shot, since my area usually has zero political activity. It was clear very early on that the tea-baggers were anti-socialist as well as anti-ruling class (ugh…). I was hoping maybe someone who disagreed with them would take interest in me. Nope. But I got some support, and I countered their presence and ruined the unanimity of their event. Rock on.
I was worried about the crowd and heckling issues. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to take it, mainly that I wouldn’t be able to keep up and think of things to say quickly enough. I have grown accustomed to quiet environments such as ISO meetings where everything is well-thought-out, nobody interrupts, etc. I prefer going to political meetings with a moderator, and have noticed that my opinion tends to dominate less in clubs without moderators. I think this is because to project a polite image I tend to avoid interrupting, but now I realize that I guess butting in is what I will have to do from now on.
Why? Because the tea party I learned that I can totally handle heckling, quick exchanged, quipping back and forth, conversation-ending statements, all of it. I can handle all of it. I took on thirty to fifty people all by myself and never came up short for an argument, a comeback, a fact, or just the will to keep looking an enemy in the eye, to keep talking to passersby even as the tea-baggers interrupted our conversations.
I can do it. I’m ready to give rabble-rousing speeches to homeless people, rally unemployment councils, and march on city hall to demand food. Given the persisting lack of financial regulation, I am sure the day will come sooner than we all think.
There were no police there the entire time. Interesting that the right-wingers don’t get patrolled the way I always do. I half-expected them to call in the cops just because I showed up.
Again, the best part was when the Latinos came down and defended my turf. My God.
Happy 4th of July, which I will henceforth celebrate as Anti-Imperialism Day. That was, after all, a big part of the idea behind 1776, right?
Solidarity to Iran as its people forges the way forward for democracy and workers’ revolution in the Middle East.
