‘Tea party’ activists march on Capitol Hill

WASHINGTON — “Tea party” activists marched on Capitol Hill Sunday promising to mobilize a surge of conservative voters on Election Day to take back the country.

“They say a storm is coming,” conservative activist Ginni Thomas told thousands gathered under an overcast sky. “They ain’t seen nothing yet. Nov. 2 will be a storm!”

Organized by the Washington-based advocacy group FreedomWorks, the march took place on Sept. 12, a date heralded by talk-show commentator Glenn Beck as a symbol of conservatives’ new political awakening. Beck did not attend.

Tea party activists used a similar march last year
to galvanize their opposition to Democrats’ health care overhaul. In
the process, they established themselves as leading voices of
opposition to the Obama administration and a threat to incumbent
Republicans deemed too moderate.

“Last year was our Woodstock,” said Anne Forgey, 69, a retiree from Huntsville, Ala.
“I came this year because I’m still worried about our country. I’m
worried about the direction we’re headed. I believe they are trying to
take away our freedom.”

Like many at the rally, Forgey carried a sign
linking Obama’s policies to socialism or communism, a central charge of
the small-government movement. Forgey’s placard read “No USSA” over a
hand-drawn picture of the hammer and sickle of the former Soviet Union’s flag.

Although the tea party failed to block the health
care measure, the movement has had some success. Tea party-supported
candidates have won Republican nominations in several states, including
Alaska, where incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski lost the GOP nomination to Joe Miller. The movement’s next test is Tuesday in Delaware, where Christine O’Donnell is trying to defeat Rep. Mike Castle for the Republican nomination for Senate.

The mood Sunday was upbeat and energized as
activists marched from the Washington Monument to the west steps of the
Capitol chanting, “Vote them out!” A group from Savannah, Ga.,
dressed as signers of the Constitution. Others lined up to sign a
massive Battle of Gonzales Flag — an emblem from the Texas Revolution —
brought by a group from Austin.

Police and National Park Service officials do not issue crowd estimates for events on the National Mall. Attendees covered most of the Capitol’s west lawn stretching to the Capitol’s reflecting pool.

Many said they were surprised by the strong turnout
given that a much larger rally, coordinated by Beck, was held just two
weeks earlier.

Unlike that event, Sunday’s rally was a political
call to arms and an organizational tool. Several conservative figures
used it to publicize their initiatives and reach activists.

Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, touted her website, Liberty Central. Andrew Breitbart, the blogger who got a U.S. Department of Agriculture
employee fired by posting a video that took her statements out of
context, accused the mainstream media of ignoring the tea party
movement and promised to offer an alternative.

“We are a citizen journalism army and we are going to take our country back,” he said.

FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe said his group was already looking past Election Day.

“Every two years, politicians come to you to promise to change the culture in Washington,” Kibbe said. “Politicians in Washington don’t mean it. You can’t change the culture in Washington. But what the tea party is doing today is changing the culture in America.”

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