When You Throw a Tea Party and No One Comes: Why It's Hard to be a Right-Wing Activist

The conservative activists were enraged. The political left was on the march, and something had to be done. The group, most hailing from upstate New York and all from the political right, had planned to charter a bus to Washington, but by the 3 p.m. deadline too few people had signed up to go. So they arranged for a van, but late that evening its water pump broke. “Spider” the biker had planned to come but he drank too much that night and fell asleep.

Others bailed too. At 3 a.m. the few who were left met in a Macy’s parking lot behind a mall in Albany and set off in the pre-dawn in two of their own cars. They were en route to meet up with thousands of others, a motley brigade of ad hoc right-wing activists, Oath Keepers, Tea Partiers, 9/12ers, the unaffiliated, with overlapping alliances that form a web of kindred rage in their battle for the future of America. They are the Yippies of the square community, and three of them were piled into a 2004 Mazda Tribute barreling down the New Jersey turnpike in the glow of a full moon, in an eleventh-hour rescue mission to save the American way – to Washington, D.C., to petition their government for a redress of grievances.

The right-wing grassroots movement has ballooned in the Obama era and incorporated a large number of people who were never activists before. Many of these neophytes hail from the exurbs, ridicule community organizing and value obedience and social conformity. Having lived most of their adult lives in the conservative America of 1980s and 1990s they have never before considered open revolt – they’re learning as they go. As the anger grows along with the deficit and more people tap into the outrage oozing out of TV sets in bedroom communities from the Adirondacks to the Sierra Nevada, the so-called “patriotic movement” continues to grow. Like any creature coming of age, it is often awkward, clumsy and unsightly, and often a bit confused as to just what exactly it stands for. And its grassroots purity has been compromised, in part, as it has grown to embrace celebrity figures and even some professional politicos.

Nonetheless, the rank and file of the Tea Party Patriots remains a dedicated cadre of volunteers, everyday Americans disgusted with what they think is happening to their country. They are the essence of the movement and as activists they are largely inexperienced. The Tea people and their kind are activism adolescents, and like movements before them they are experiencing growing pains.

“Have you ever heard of Kesey and the magic bus? They were called the Merry Pranksters. Kind of reminds me of this bus,” said Lynne Roberts, 61, from the driver’s seat. Barbara “Barb” Park, 58, laughed nasally in the seat next to her. Bob “The Weasel Slayer” MacInness, 62, slept in the backseat with his head in a pile of soft things.

When Lynne first conceived of this operation just weeks before, the leadership of her Tea Party Patriots group praised her for her enthusiasm, and gently told her it would be impossible to organize on such short notice. But she was sure that tired slogans and clever picket signs weren’t getting anyone anywhere. A health care reform bill had passed the House and was moving through the Senate. Time was growing short.

“I started getting these feelings that what we really needed to do is be right in their lairs.” So she started firing off emails and made a stream of phone calls from her home in small-town Vermont, and soon there was a “We Surround You” event listed for Tuesday, December 1st, on the national Tea Party Patriots website. The plan was to rally outside the Capitol, then invade the offices of enemy senators, delivering to each a petition and an onslaught of disapproval.