Santa Barbara County Tea Party Observation and Photos

Last Saturday, the Daily Uprising team marched at the Santa Barbara County Tea Party. The event was an immense amount of fun and we made a number of new friends.

We’ll do a review and post some video later on in the week, but we wanted to share an observation about our experience for the benefit of organizers gearing up for their April 15th Tax Day Rallies: This tea party distinguished itself from most demonstrations you’ve seen before by being a patriotic celebration. The marchers actually sang God Bless America and said the Pledge of Allegiance before hitting the streets demanding recalls and repeals. The photographs that I’ve included below are the result of shuttling through our footage trying to find frames where one of the numerous American flags was not obscuring a speakers face or covering up the message on a sign.

We think that this patriotic attitude is important to the event’s persuasiveness. We understand that studies have shown that the act of protesting often turns-off people who may have otherwise considered the proposition the protesters were trying to advocate. The tea party protesters are different in that the presentation appeals to a common love of country and is every bit as much about sentiment for freedom lost as it is about bitterness in Obama’s presidential victory.

Thanks and congratulations to the organizers and to all who participated. Even the politicians stepped-up and did a great job!