Brody's Scribbles... The "Average" Tea-bag protester?

Photo by Jose Luis Magana, The Associated Press

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Sept 15 | They were roughly 69,700 in number. Mostly white middle-class to upper middle-class, self identified as "Conservative Christian," American Express Card carrying members of the opposition to President Obama's Health Care Reform. They gathered at Freedom Plaza on Pennsylvania Avenue at Fourteenth Street on Saturday, Sept 12th,  here in Washington D. C.

Loudly proclaiming their opinions and vehement disdain for the  president's policies on the health care issue, they left Freedom plaza and marched up Pennsylvania Avenue to the West Lawn of the U. S. Capitol Building to listen to more speeches. They carried signs that portrayed President Obama as Che Guevara, Adolf Hitler, and other less flattering signs that wished ill upon him as well as his policies. One stating that; "Obama's plan should have died with Kennedy." (Senator Ted Kennedy)

I interviewed a rather large number of them and then, for no particular reason out of idle curiosity, I asked where they hailed from, their employment and just for giggles, where they were staying while attending the protests in Washington.

This is where their answers got very interesting. The vast majority I spoke with were employed with an income above $100,000 per year and had good health care plans or HMO's that they were enrolled in. Significantly, they were staying in some of Washington's best luxury hotels, such as the Mayflower, the Willard, the newly reopened 'W' next door to the Willard, the Washington Hilton, The Sheraton Woodley Park, the list goes on.

They represented a cross section of the American landscape but it seemed that the mid-west and south were over represented. I asked them what they were opposed to in particular and if they'd read the proposed legislation. Notably, most said government take over of Health Care, the so-called Death Panels, and health care for illegal immigrants were the issues that alarmed them the most and no, none had read the 116 page Bill.

I then queried, " If you've not read the legislation, then how are you certain that what you are opposed to is actually a part of it?" They assured me that people like Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and especially the sponsor of the march, FreedomWorks, Chairman and Former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey, were absolutely trustworthy in disseminating the information that would be 100% totally accurate. That was the entire point of this rally and getting their views made known.

To be honest? I walked away shaking my head. I had asked about the homeless, the poor across the nearby Anacostia river, the middle class like themselves that had lost their health care when they lost their jobs, and those Americans that simply couldn't afford health care.  They had no answers. They simply repeated, no parroted all that they'd heard from those that had given the speeches and I knew that they would go back to their $180 dollar per night and up hotel rooms to rest their weary heads after all that protesting.

Yes, they love America, but I don't think that they truly love Americans, at least not Americans that are different from themselves. 
By the way, absolutely none of the issues they mentioned are in any version of any pending bill regarding Health Care Reform before the Congress.