If you listened to the speeches at the Tax Day tea party held in the courthouse square of this northern Virginia town, population 25,733, you might not have caught the name of the man in the White House. Among many denunciations of high taxes and out-of-control government spending, there were just a couple of mentions of Barack Obama — one when a local activist criticized the administration’s cap-and-trade energy plan, and the other when a city businessman said he prays for the president.
“This is absolutely not an Obama thing,” James See, a painting contractor, told me as we stood in a cold drizzle waiting for the mid-day rally to begin. “The president is under a tremendous amount of strain and pressure. People had their time to choose who they wanted to be president. President Obama is our president, and we have to live under that, whether we agree with all of his policies or not.” The tea party, See said, was intended to send Washington a simple message: “We’re out here.”
A number of other people told me much the same thing. “This is a government thing,” Ben Burkhart, a retired police officer, said. “It’s a Congress thing,” said Ken Hersh, a painting and maintenance contractor. “To me, it’s a liberal Congress thing,” added Butch Kuykendall, a retired school teacher. Kuykendall thought a moment and added, “But the Republicans haven’t always been too good..” “They’re horrible,” chimed in Kuykendall’s friend James Spangler, an insurance agent.
A number of press reports have characterized the tea parties as anti-Obama exercises. The Wall Street Journal carried an online story headlined “Anti-Obama ‘Tea Party’ Protests Mark Tax Day.” CNN introduced a tea-party story by saying, “This is a party for Obama-bashers.” The Los Angeles Times ran a column headlined, “Anti-Obama Taxpayer Tea Parties Steeped in Insanity.” But in Winchester at least, the atmosphere was not so much anti-Obama — organizers posted a note on their website asking that everyone “Please DO NOT personally attack the President or any member of Congress by name” — as it was a classic conservative Republican, limited-government, anti-spending talkfest. Anyone who covered the GOP primary contests in 2007-2008 would have recognized it immediately.
At those gatherings, as now, Republicans complained of runaway federal spending. They didn’t want to bash George W. Bush — they were too grateful for his efforts in the War on Terror to do that — but they blamed the then-president, as well as Republicans in Congress, for failing to rein in federal spending. And on spending at least, they heard what they wanted from John McCain and voted for him, even though many disliked the party nominee for a variety of other reasons.
Looking back, the way a lot of them see it is that Bush laid the foundation for worse things to follow. “It started with the Republicans and with Bush,” James Spangler, the insurance agent, told me. “I mean, I’m a George Bush guy, but it started with him at the end, with Bernanke and Paulson — those guys screwed up big time, and they opened the door for those people who are in there now to just go crazy, which is what they’re doing.”
Now, deficits that troubled them a few years ago have tripled. The $787 billion stimulus bill, in particular, bothered everyone here — not just the spending, but how it was rushed through Congress by a secretive Democratic leadership before anyone in the general public had a chance to examine it. (One child here carried a sign that said READ B4 U SIGN!) The projected $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009 simply blows their mind. And then there is the old-fashioned stuff. A number of people were aware of a new report by Citizens Against Government Waste naming Mississippi Republican Sen. Thad Cochran as the Congress’ most prolific earmarker, with $653 million in park-barrel projects for his state. “I heard about Thad Cochran, and it was really upsetting to me,” homemaker Cheryl Lancaster told me, “because I always thought it was more Democrat than Republican. But honestly, it’s both of them.”
And thus the tea parties. This rally, which about 300 people braved the rain, wind, and 45-degree temperatures to attend, was a small-town, homemade affair. There were no Washington activists, no Fox News stars, nobody from outside the local area. It began with the Pledge of Allegiance and a capella renditions of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and “America the Beautiful.” It ended with “God Bless America.” There were lots flags and patriotism and quotations from the Founding Fathers.
This is not a rich place. According to the census, the median household income in Winchester is $44,808, significantly less than the statewide Virginia median of $59,575, a number that includes the affluent suburbs of Washington. Less than one in four adults here has a bachelor’s degree or higher. And with the economic downturn, particularly in the housing business, many are in rough situations.
“I started out with three or four workers, and it’s down to me,” Ken Hersh, the painting contractor, told me. “I had my sons working with me. It’s bad when you have to tell your sons to find another job.”
“You laid off your sons?”
“I laid off my sons. That’s bad.”
Cheryl Lancaster, the homemaker, told me her husband “sells evil corporate jets.” She explained that his job gave her a different perspective on the populist outcry against corporate CEOs and their private planes. “You know how a lot of companies were getting slammed on that, but I think of all the people the jet companies employed,” she said.
You can think what you like of the tea parties, and the media coverage of the tea parties, across the country. Here in Winchester, Tax Day was a serious and well-meaning affair. For the people here, there are principles at stake in this fight, and, as much as they can, they intend to stand up for what they believe.
