The right-wing Tea Party Patriots movement participated in a nationwide "Can you hear us now?" series of protests on Saturday, and it became another indicator that the movement is petering out.
And reverting to its essential hard core of embittered wingnuts, who represent a micro-minority of voters.
The purpose of "Can you hear me now?" was to protest the "liberal" media, especially how the media reported the accurate five-figure attendance at the 9/12 rally in Washington, rather than the 2 million-plus the tea partiers KNOW were there.
Yeah, right.
Few real media covered these poorly attended publicity-hound events; even World Net Daily found only 100 protestors in New York City.
Details about the underwhelming local protest outside the Albany Times Union, below.
The Albany-area tea partiers are an active bunch, but every one of their events since April 15, when they had two local radio stations talking it up, and evidently attracted a crowd of a few thousand, has attracted much fewer than that.
Saturday afternoon, about 30 people turned out, with their Gadsden flags and anti-Obama signs.
At their Yahoo chat board, one attendee was really disappointed, wondering where all the "patriots" were:
I spent two hours today on a corner in front of the Times Union building, in a "can you hear us now" rally (one of 100, going on in all parts of the country), in the company of loyal patriots, and because of that, it was a great experience.
I came away wondering, however, where were the rest of you? We had about 30 people, but were told about 40-50 would attend.
You know who you are, those who promise to support our efforts to return our country to freedom and greatness, but when it comes time to actually take time away from your comfortable life, you defer the effort to US, to those willing to leave our families (my husband had been away for two weeks, when I told him this morning that I would be gone for most of the day, and my daughter was home from college for today and part of tomorrow), and our jobs (thank you, Spyder), and our chance to relax and enjoy the weekend. We do not sacrifice our time because we have nothing better to do.
We sacrifice our time BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING BETTER TO DO, or more important to do. Obama is trying to destroy everything we believe in and have worked our lives to create. Open your eyes, help us beat this tyranny!
(Emphases in the original)
The tea partiers chose the Times Union site because of its high visibility to traffic, and not because the TU had ignored their "movement."
One local tea party leader notified, and kissed up to, the TU in advance of their protest:
I represent a coalition of liberty minded groups throughout the Capital District who feel our concerns are under represented by both our elected officials and the media. A nation-wide rally called "Can You Hear Us Now?" has been set up for this Saturday, 10/17. This is an attempt for average Americans to voice their concerns on a number of issues and try to awaken certain members of the media to the fact we are not a fringe minority, but rather represent a growing and substantial portion of the American public.
Here in the Capital District we are going to rally to show our grave concerns over the direction of this country, and in particular show opposition to so-called Healthcare Reform, Cap and Trade and forced vaccinations.
We are thankful to the Times Union for its fair portrayal of our events and rallies over the last couple of months, and as a result we have decided to bring the news to your doorstep! Various people from all walks of life will be outside the Times Union Building on Albany Shaker Road this Saturday from 11-1, from soccer Moms to Harley riders. Our intention is to reach the public, and hopefully your readers regarding these issues, feeling other media outlets may not be as friendly to our cause. We hope to reach a better understanding and look forward to advancing a dialogue with the Times Union.
We thank you in advance and look forward to visiting the Times Union this Saturday.
The TU could do nothing to prevent a protest in the public right-of-way on Albany-Shaker Road, but it did not report, online anyway, about the couple dozen tea partiers outside its building.
Despite the tea partiers' faux friendliness.
Here, as elsewhere, the tea partiers have gotten a lot of media attention, though most of it has come from Fox News nationally and conservative radio hosts locally.
Because they support these wingnuts, in whatever they do.
In one way, the petering-out of the tea party movement is good news -- they really do not represent anything close to a majority of the American people.
In another way, there is the possibility that tea partiers who recognize that they will never get what they want through elections might go outside the law.
The local tea partiers have been verbally violent, but not actually violent, yet.
Let's hope it stays that way.