Tea party rally centers on calls for lower taxes
tvanoot@ sacbee.com
Published Thursday, Apr. 15, 2010

For the most part, tea party activists filling the west lawn of Capitol Park today just want to be left alone.

"I want my rights, I want my liberty, I want my government and this Capitol to get out of my way and let me pursue my happiness," conservative radio host Eric Hogue told the crowd, drawing loud cheers.

But first, they want their elected officials to take notice.

"They don't listen to what we want. They just want to get their own agenda done," said Chandra Murphy, a Concord homemaker who held a sign reading, "We will not sit down and shut up."

The rally at the Capitol, one of more than 90 Tax Day protests planned in California, was centered on calls for lower taxes and a smaller government limited by a strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.

"If it's not in the original Constitution, government has no businesses being in it," said a man on stilts decked out in an Uncle Sam costume who called himself "Too Tall."

An estimated 2,000 to 3,000 demonstrators attended the afternoon rally, which was sponsored by the NorCal Tea Party Patriots. Last year's Tax Day rally at the Capitol attracted an estimated 5,000 people.

Many in the crowd expressed disdain for President Barack Obama. Their top complaint was the recent health care overhaul.

"I'm mad because what the government is doing with the country is headed toward socialism," said Ron Brown, a physical therapist from Sacramento.

But the sign-wielding demonstrators also decried illegal immigration, public funding for abortions and what they characterized as a lack of water rights for Central Valley farmers.

Similar rallies across the country attracted thousands of tea party supporters, with conservatives such as Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich headlining some events.

Republican candidates and officials touted the tea parties, billed as a resurrection of the 1773 Boston Tea Party, as a sign that their party will see a surge of support in the November midterm elections.

The tea party movement, which is not its own political party, leans right, but attendees and organizers at the Sacramento rally stressed that they are unhappy with the Democratic and Republican parties alike.

And some attendees sought to distance themselves from some of the movement's more controversial, right-wing associations, such as "birthers" who question whether Obama was born in the United States.

"No one's foaming at the mouth," said Jim Jones of West Sacramento. "(This is an) affirmation of what traditional Americans think America should be."

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/04/15/268223 ... calls.html