The Chicago Tea Party – Pictures, Video, Review

Inevitably, the magic gets ripped away from nearly every image we create. The fantasy steals itself away and leaves a naked, shriveled body in its place – a shell of what we once held up as an ideal. It’s at the point that we see the true face of the image, in all its blemished and pocked glory, staring us straight in the face, perplexed, as if to ask, “Well, what did you expect?”

At any juncture like this, a serious individual would pause for a moment of reflection, take a minute to readjust their belief system to something more practical & real, and tear the tarnished image down. All humans err, and surely, therefore, cannot be blamed for a change of heart like this. What they can be blamed for, however, is staring into the gaping maw of a failed ideology and, despite all warnings, continuing on into the void.

This is not bravery or loyalty, it’s drunken amateur bull fighting.

Toro!

Tea Parties were held today in every state around this great nation. To summarize briefly, these are parties for people who don’t want to be taxed by the government. Really, though, these meetings were a greasy glaze covering up all sorts of less-than-altruistic motives – all brought to you by a blind, jingoistic mob who have their own less-than-subtle reasons for being there. This is all played to the soundtrack of country music, by the way.

A sign seen being championed by its proud bearer simply saying “No!” sums up this event pretty well. These people come from all around Chicago to protest something. What that something is they can’t quite put their finger on, or would rather not admit to in public. To be sure, though, this is an event for disaffected conservatives who sense their 15 minutes – or eight years – of fame are over. Though some claim that this is a non-partisan event for all angry at the government, the advertisements and drive-by billboards I saw at the Chicago Tea Party event exclusively championed conservative causes, candidates, and talk shows.

But, whatever, this was a family-friendly event for everyone. Except for the Obama is Hitler paraphernalia meandering throughout the crowd. Which is confusing, because how could he be a fascist and a socialist, all at the same time? I digress.

Some other clever banners I saw at the rally likened Barnie Franks to some sort of flamboyant pimp, boldly stated “Join or Die”, or – and this is one of my favorite gems – flatly came on the out-and-out with it: “ENGLISH UNITES AMERICA”. I, too, am tired of being taxed, and hey, I’m also tired of people who don’t speak English! Right guys?!

Guys…?

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A few more photos, including the famous Join or Die flag:

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 1:48 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.