Boise Tea Party, April 15: Decent Turnout!

Boise Tea Party, April 15: Decent Turnout!

I won't claim to any great expertise in estimating crowds, but there was clearly in the high hundreds present. If you told me that there was more than 1000 people present, I wouldn't argue the point. It was less than 2000, however, I am quite sure. And I was wrong. The April 15, 2009 Idaho Statesman says:

A buoyant Boise crowd police estimated at 2,500 people braved drizzle, temperatures in the 40s and the temporary absence of a sound system Wednesday to signal their opposition to a growing government.

Considering that this was in the middle of the workday, that's pretty decent in a city that only has about 200,000 people. It didn't hurt that Dan Popkey, a very liberal political columnist for the Idaho Statesman, mentioned that this was going to happen in yesterday's paper.



There was a variety of signs, from serious to humorous:









This sign was actually pretty thoughtful. Remember when leftists used to have "Kill Your Television" bumper stickers on their cars?











I wasn't clear whether this was set up by the organizers, or just entrepreneurship at work, but either way, a good idea!



I wish I had a better picture, but I took it because I was pleased to see someone who correctly recognized that what Obama and the Democrats are foisting upon us isn't socialism, but fascism (all the worst excesses of socialism combined with the worst excesses of capitalism--and none of the benefits of free markets).



Being as we were in front of the statehouse, a few sympathetic members of the legislature showed up, such as Rep. Barrett.



She gave a pretty strong speech to the crowd, to wild applause.



By comparison, I'm a wimpy liberal.

Rev. Bryan Fischer of the Idaho Values Alliance was another speaker. I've never heard him address a large crowd before, and I was very impressed. A very effective extemporaneous speaker.



I had to leave before all the politicians had a chance to speak (I have work to do, so even this report is a bit abbreviated), but one my representatives in the Idaho lower house, Rep. Pete Nielsen, was there, and we said hello.



There were gobs of Boise and Idaho State police officers present, I guess in the event of rioting Republicans (which happens so often, you know). Perhaps they were afraid of this guy running amok with his pitchfork:



I didn't feel even slightly intimidated by the police. At one point, about a dozen of them drove by on motorcycles, and at least one expressed his enthusiasm for what we were doing.