Valparaiso, IN tea party rally: disillusionment and disconnection

Note: A similar version of this essay was published today by the Daily Yonder.

“Are you here to crucify us?”

That was the greeting I received from one of the volunteers with Northwest Indiana Patriots before their big tea party rally in Valparaiso, Indiana on April 14th after I identified myself as a “writer covering the event.” Another volunteer, dressed in a skin-tight black t-shirt, torn blue jeans and combat boots, refused to let me escape the laser-like glare wrapped in the cloud of his chain smoking. The defensiveness of the NWI Patriot volunteers, along with the intensity of the tea-party-tough’s stare was palpable throughout my entire interview with Faith, a local woman with no prior political experience who founded and organized the group, despite the banal nature of my obvious questions—“Why are you doing this?” “What are you trying to accomplish?” etc.

Guards were quickly dropped once we shared some humorous banter and small talk, and I learned that the organization was created to counter the “exclusion” small town locals felt from the major tea party branch located in Indianapolis, and became quickly mobilized and galvanized around a referendum on a county tax increase proposed to pay for improvement and enhancement of public transportation. Faith, and other local leaders, skillfully made upward connections between a local debate that county residents were directly affected by and larger state and national issues that spike the punch of the tea party.

The rally showed signs of success. 100-150 people gathered around the old courthouse in the Valparaiso downtown square brandishing signs with slogans that ranged from the mundane (“Make Washington Listen to Us”) to the absurd (“Obamacare=Socialism=Slavery”). John Berry, a country hitmaker of the 1990s was there to sing a new song called “Give Me Back My America,” and NWI Patriot members manned several tables selling self-promotional t-shirts, Sarah Palin mousepads, and “Don’t Tread on Me” baseball caps.

Ken, the same volunteer who thought I was there to nail him to a cross, worked one of the merchandise stands and spoke with me about his involvement in the group between sales, which left plenty of time. As far as right-wing activists go, Ken is alarmingly unique. He doubles his civic participatory duty by also organizing Valparaiso’s Earth Day events and dreams of moving to Florida where he can follow his passion for converting homes and businesses to solar powered, energy efficient, environmentally friendly buildings.

Although Ken told me that his fellow tea partiers “don’t understand” his environmentalism, he has much more in common with them than not. He, along with the rest of the volunteers and supporters I interviewed, spoke in the same two word slogans and expressed vague outrage when probed for deeper political thinking than “fiscal responsibility,” “accountable representation” and “limited government.” As politically loaded as some of those words may be, none of those slogans—especially “accountable representation,” which I heard repeated the most frequently and emphatically—are even slightly disagreeable, regardless of one’s particular ideology. The populist anger of the Northwest Indiana tea partiers could be moved to a left-wing protest rally without much discernible difference. 

As much as the NWI Patriots seemed to hate Obama and health care reform, they also hate large corporations and the favorable treatment they are given by Washington. One member named Chris, a talkative combat veteran who is considering a run for the Indiana State Senate, discussed the necessity of “fair” and public campaign financing, which would allocate an equal amount of public funds to each candidate running for an office.

Chris, due to being the sole member who could give a specific policy proposal when prompted, emerged as a wonkish exception to the group. The others, especially when attacking the President, relied on wildly ungrounded statements such as “Obama’s taking away our freedoms” or “Obama is destroying small businesses,” when discussing the need for an oppositional movement, but could never name a single freedom violated or anti-small business measure taken by the current administration. Only more abstractions were given as explanation—“The freedom to innovate and be successful,” “There is too much red tape in the way of running a business.”

Protection of small businesses was a running theme among the Patriots even though I was unable to find a single small business owner in the crowd. The one small business owner and operator I did speak to, sat behind the counter in a boutique she owns across the street from the rally. Pointing outside, seemingly towards the rest of the independent shops and restaurants located around the square, she said with enough pep and charm to make Palin resemble Janet Reno, “All of these people live here, but I never see them. If they really want to support small businesses, why don’t they shop here? If I were you, I’d ask them where they shop and see what they say.”

Once I got over the humbling realization that she came up with a better angle than I ever could have, I circulated the rally again, asking each self-appointed small business protector where he or she shops and nearly everyone named a big box retailer. The financial situation, and thereby the shopping incentive, for patronizing Wal-Mart and Target rather than competing small businesses, of the Patriots was difficult to guess. However, it is plausible to believe that at least a few of the members could occasionally support the self-owned and staffed shops in the square. The disconnect between pronounced political passion and personal purchasing habits was clear, and it became emblematic of the entire event.

There was a disconnect between the behavior of the tea party ralliers and the national media portrayal of them as racist, barbaric lunatics—Most of them, from Faith who gave me a long interview despite doing three things at once to John Berry, who sang me a bit of the Chi Lites’ “Oh Girl” after I complimented the soulfulness of his voice, were very kind, warm, and generous. There was a disconnect between the level of knowledge and level of passion among the crowd—one twenty-something manicurist claimed to be there because she “wanted to find out what was going on and get involved,” but could not offer specific reasons for joining that particular organization beyond an acknowledgement of their existence. Finally, given the vagueness of their protest, there was a disconnect between themselves and their political positions.

They have largely legitimate concerns and grievances about the quality of their lives and future of their children’s lives that are not being addressed in Washington by either party. Their wages have stagnated, while the cost of raising a family has crushingly increased. It seemed very possible that the aimlessly angered manicurist spoke for many tea party members nationwide when she essentially admitted to joining the group just because it was there. It also seems very possible that if liberals were less elitist and the left was less suicidal they could organize many of the same frustrated working class voters, considering the cross-pollination of populism that manifests itself in protest against big banks, big corporations, and big media.

This certainly isn’t to imply that everyone at the rally seemed reasonable or reachable. Jerry Kaifetz, a “Christian author,” gave an address to the crowd that was as stupid as it was hateful. Easily the most memorable quote of the event, he actually said, into the microphone without irony or hesitation, “I haven’t read Obama’s book, but someone who has told me that in it he says, ‘When push comes to shove I’ll stand with the Muslims.’”

The decency and sincerity of the audience was betrayed by the absurdity and bigotry of the speaker, and it made me wonder why anyone would want Kaifetz to represent them on a local level or Palin and Beck to do so on a national level. Illustrating the point, one woman, who was there simply to observe, turned and walked away in disgust during Kaifetz’ address, which followed John Berry’s second of four scheduled performances and a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, audibly remarking, “These people are assholes. I need to go home to bathe.” Interestingly enough, the classy and kind Berry also left before Kaifetz finished, failing to play the rest of his advertised songs. However, most of the audience loudly cheered and raised fists during the speech.

When the group began their march around the square, I marched to my car, passing two high school students who were inexplicably chanting “Nascar” at the Patriots, an elderly man who pointed out the obnoxious contradiction of a man wearing a “Yellowstone National Park” t-shirt and holding a “Stop Socialism” sign, and finally the same business owner who gave me my personal shopping versus political rhetoric line of inquiry.

“What did you think of the event?” I slowed down to ask her while she sat in a chair set against her shop door, sipping on a Bud Light.

“They take up too many parking spaces.”