Not Enough Noise, and Surely Not Enough People
by James Glaser
April 16, 2009

I went to yesterday's Tea Party in Tallahassee. I'm not good at estimating crowds, but my guess would be between a thousand and fifteen hundred people showed up. That would be about ½ of 1% of the population of the county Tallahassee.

Nationwide, the number of people upset with what is going on in Washington was even smaller than in North Florida. Don't get me wrong, it was great seeing all those people at the State Capitol, and it was especially nice to see whole families there, but like I said, it wasn't enough.

If people want to get the attention of our elected officials, we need millions of Americans to stand up and speak out. I am afraid that isn't going to happen until they come to take our guns, or unemployment gets up around 25%.

Americans have too many "drugs" to take their minds away from these issues. They have television, radio, the computer, alcohol, pot, kids, part-time jobs added to full-time jobs. They have house payments, car payments, insurance payments, credit card payments, the cost of food, fuel, repairs, clothing, and money for their church or their favorite charity.

Americans work longer and harder than any other country on the globe. We also have the most stuff and the highest debt load. Most Americans are so busy they don't know if they are coming or going, and that is right where Washington wants to keep them.

If Barack Obama can get easy credit back, Americans can go further into debt, and debt is the real drug Americans are addicted to. Debt keeps them from thinking about anything else, like government or their children's future, to a minimum.

So, things are going to have to become very extreme before the average American figures out that things have changed. Right now, some have lost their house, and some have lost their jobs, but most still have a place to live, and those unemployment checks keep getting extended. But some day that might come to an end.

If and when we have millions of people without a job or a roof over their heads, and that last unemployment check has been cashed, then the fog will be lifted, and there will be more than tea parties.

I don't want things to get like that, but I do feel that is where we are headed. The people that did show up at yesterday's Tea Party are thinkers and planers. They know from experience that when economic times are hard for their family, increased spending does nothing but dig them deeper in the hole. The people at Tallahassee's Tea Party are afraid that Barack Obama's policies of massive spending will only hurt us, but maybe more importantly they believe that spending will hurt their children.

They know that Obama is going to (and he admits it) spend more money than all the presidents in history combined spent. Yes, that includes George Bush's spending. They also know that Barack Obama is doubling our national debt, and every new idea coming out of the White House must be financed by borrowing from China, Japan, and any other country with a surplus of funds.

Remember, we, the United States of America, is the greatest debtor nation on the globe. That is nothing to be proud of. The people who attended the Tax Day Tea Parties know deficit spending can cost a family everything it has, and they sure don't want that to happen to our country.

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