Chet Hardin's story starts by recognizing that teabaggers are not "This American Life" fans:
Some surprising guests show up at the weekly meeting of the Capital Region's "liberty minded".
Kevin McCashion, one of the lead organizers of the Sons of Liberty, introduced the petite woman who was stalking the members with a microphone. "This is Lisa. She's from a well-known radio show, This American Life - it's sponsored by major corporations."
McCashion is the type who likes to get his digs in.
"No we're not," Lisa Pollak countered. "We do fundraisers."
"Is this a local radio show?" a woman asked.
The Sons of Liberty group, which came together after last year's Tea Party Tax Day rally, is not a natural audience for the successful radio program that airs locally on the liberal public-radio station WAMC.
McCashion, who is a Bircher organizer, had advised his people to "behave," and they did, somewhat, in their questioning of Luke Martland, who is challenging longtime state Sen. Neil Breslin in this year's Democratic primary.
McCashion, and other teabaggers, have tried to portray their movement as nonpartisan, though every candidate they work for or get excited about just happens to be a Republican.
Martland soon found out why:
Martland, for his part, said that he had no intention of swaying these Tea Party members, and that he wasn't seeking their endorsement. In fact, he said, he would refuse it if they offered it. So why did he turn out for a rowdy meeting of 30 presumably registered Republicans?
"I like to debate," he told Metroland. Plus, he said, he believes that all efforts ought to be made to overcome partisanship.
"What's your plan, other than platitudes?" McCashion asked him.
Martland said that he believes in term limits, and would term limit himself out of office. He also said that he would forgo any outside employment, making the Legislature his full-time interest. He would agitate for legislation that would call for full disclosure of outside income for legislators. He would support fair redistricting and ethics reform.
snip
"Boy, does that sound like the same thing that every politician says," a man interjected.
"I don't think that it's the same. Every politician says that they will cut waste, systematically, but nobody has done it," Martland said. "I would eliminate member items. I would look at agencies, boards, different bodies to streamline."
The crowd wasn't buying it.
No, they were not, as soon became obvious:
"I think that education is one of the most important mandates of the government," Martland said, actually drawing out shocked gasps from a crowd of people who would prefer that the Department of Education be dismantled.
"Is capitalism flawed in your view?" a woman asked.
"I think capitalism needs to be regulated," Martland said, pointing to the recent Wall Street turmoil.
Another member told Martland that the group would love to support a Democrat, "and an openly gay one at that," but that, from the 40 minutes that they had discussed the issues, they were starting to get the sense that he was a socialist. "So, are you a socialist?"
Martland, a Princeton-educated former Manhattan assistant district attorney, was a little taken aback. "I'm not a socialist."
He supported the bailouts, the Federal Reserve, welfare, social security, the health-care reform. "Government has a very important role protecting people."
"If you want to reduce government to a tiny little kernel, then I disagree with you," Martland said.
"Socialist!" the verdict was made.
"If you think that the Federal Reserve ought to be abolished," he said, "I think that's silly."
Well, abolishing the Federal Reserve is a major Paul/Bircher/teabagger issue, even though the New York State Senate cannot do anything about that.
After the meeting, Pollak interviewed Martland.
"Did anything surprise you tonight?" she asked.
"I don't get the Federal Reserve argument," he said, laughing.
"I can't imagine what you were expecting coming in," she said
"I was expecting this," Martland said.
Pollak was there as part of a future TAL hour that will explore whether government can solve our problems, her bit will look into "the Tea Party in a way that is less superficial."
On-the-ground reporting about teabaggers is always enlightening, because it will validate the "superficial" reporting/blogging that has found that teabaggers are extremely conservative Republicans.
Hardin's report was lacking in that it did not once mention Ron Paul and the John Birch Society, whose radical anti-government ideology obviously inspires McCashion and his few followers, and many teabaggers across the country.
His description of the Sons of Liberty was also way incomplete:
The Sons of Liberty meet every Monday to complain about property taxes driven by the high costs of education and social-welfare programs, and the influence of unions on a bloating budget.
Lately, McCashion's cadre has been meeting to organize field work for local GOP candidates who meet their standard of wingnuttery.
And they hate ALL taxes, not just property taxes, and oppose most programs, from public education to Social Security, that taxes support.
Whatever, I'm glad that Chet Hardin and Lisa Pollak attended the weekly Paul/Bircher/teabagger meeting.
Because the more voters know about these people, the better. |
