Due to an apparently large amount of confusion between various factions of the Philadelphia area conservative movement, the “Tea Party” protest that was held yesterday was not the actual event, sort of. Bitter and I headed down to Independence Mall this afternoon, figuring if this event wasn’t happening, we could always get some lunch. Well, it was happening. See photos below. Commentary is in the photos if you click on them.
After everything was over, we went for some lunch and walked around Old City a bit. This even could have been much larger and better if accommodations could have been worked out between different groups. It is, I hope, not a bad omen for the future of the GOP in the Philadelphia area, that they are unable to successfully organize something like this.
I hate to say it, but this is more than a bad omen. Since the key to a republican win in Penna is to take the suburban belts around Philly the inability of local groups to work together on something as simple as a public protest is proof conservatives are simply not ready for prime time.
Maybe we get some of that money Obama is throwing around to do a study on how to improve things.
If the original date of Saturday the 28th had held, I’d have ventured down from Doylestown with my kids to help out. The may be in elementary school, but are veterans of Gathering Of Eagles III in DC (Sept 2007).
When I checked the Philly Inquirer and Daily News websites, I found NOTHING. All day Saturday, I checked news sites to use stories in my 2x week column, but there was nothing until this evening. I’m starting to find stories in the media, but only found your’s for Philly, and that only through Pajamas Media.
I agree George. The Philadelphia Suburbs were once a stronghold for the GOP. That’s changed, and now they have to get their act together if they want to win.
I’m not in any of your photos, but if you noticed the tall guy with a ponytail and short beard in a blue denim sport coat over a red and white aloha shirt, that was me. I was off handing out the “10 reasons to oppose the Obama Housing Bailout” most of the time.
The problem started with the fact that the party was listed as happening at “Liberty Hall, Philadelphia.” There’s no such thing. There’s Independence Hall, which was what was intended.
What we have here, is a failure to communicate.
#1 George, an optimist looks at a cup half full and says “how can I fill the entire cup? The competing calls for sites suggests the illumination by this tea party call (as alluded to by PACooler.com) of a national protest movement not seen since the 1700s. The free rad lab #freeradlab is an open door to research activism and its collaborative coordination.
Why not do it once a month or every other month? Valley Forge is fairly central to the suburbs — Montgomery, Chester and Bucks Co.
Sadly, this came up kind quick for me to make it. If we are going to do this in DC, as we should, we need to get the detail down tight and give enough lead time for folks to make arrangements to participate.
There was one in DC, too. Sorry you missed the planning and prep for it.
I’d attend a weekend Tea Party on a regular basis if they could be arranged. Doesn’t anyone on this list have a connection with area Republican politicians for e-mail lists?
Communications is the central issue in organizing any sort of event, so that e-mail list would seem like a top priority goal. Then, finding someone in the group who’d be willing to maintain it and send the notices out seems like the next step.
The monumental changes that the current government (local and national) can be expected to attempt to ram through, certainly warrants a regular (monthly? quarterly?) gathering that can serve as a catalyst for the group’s expansion and with an encouragement to contribute speeches of a reasonable duration, the gatherings can also serve to incubate conservative political candidates to incrementally re-populate city and State offices.
First of all, there is no “list” here. Second, why would the Republican Party of Pennsylvania – the party of Arlen Specter – get behind organizing rallies where his name is booed loudly and often? They have to support him if he runs and wins a primary on the Republican ticket. To have their leadership organizing protests against his actions only hurts their chances of success in 2010.
Most people wouldn’t do a weekly event. But, I’ve seen lots of chatter about a big April 15 rally that’s supposed to be a coordinated nationwide event. I have yet to see anything for a Philly location, but I haven’t looked much, either.
I suspect that there is room for an organizer to step up. But, I do suspect that the larger rallies in other states are being partially driven by local GOP activists, and the organizer would have to acknowledge that the huge GOP network would likely be cut off since it is technically responsible for the passing votes on the stimulus.
Actually, come to think of it, a protest at Arlen Specter’s nearest district office would probably get more coverage and have better turn out than something technically meaningless on Independence Mall.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2204681/posts
The problem here is that again there is confusion! Why are there 2 tea parties, one on April 15th and one on April 18th? That’s messed up…
Overall, conservatives/libertarians probably aren’t as good at organizing protests because we haven’t done it much. I don’t know that I see different factions though, I think its just the grassroots nature of the movement, where folks started organizing the rallies before they became aware of the others. I’m actually glad there were two, as the 4-18 rally was the only one I could attend.