Brian Boyce
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE —
If local Tea Party activists get their way, the ranks of the unemployed will swell this November as half of Congress is sent home packing.
Between 350 and 400 demonstrators took to the Vigo County Courthouse steps between noon and 2 p.m. Thursday, American flags waving in the 80-degree breeze as banners and picket signs bobbed amid the crowd. April 15, or “Tax Day,” was a good enough reason for individuals fed up with what they termed “liberal” and “socialist” politics to pound the pavement.
Jim Schoene, a retired U.S. Army helicopter pilot, stood in the crowd along North Third Street, listening to speakers ranging from candidates for office to fellow citizens. At the onset of his military career, he said he took an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. “And I’m still defending that Constitution,” he said, referring to his opposition to policy changes proposed by the presidential administration of Barack Obama. The Tea Party movement, which began in 2009 as a foil to the health care and financial initiatives of the Obama administration, is the first time Schoene and his wife have become politically active, he said. “This really has us fired up.”
Similar rallies were conducted throughout Indiana, Chicago, and other parts of the nation as protesters blasted members of Congress for deficit spending, taxation, recent health care legislation and an overall “socialist” approach to government.
Signs emblazoned with slogans such as “Impeach Ellsworth,” “You Lunatics, Repeal the Stimulus,” “Former Democrat” and “Liberty and Socialism Cannot Co-Exist” waved to honking horns along the courthouse steps Thursday afternoon.
Demonstration organizers led the crowd in a “Levin Surge,” a technique named after conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin. Using a loudspeaker to tell the crowd the phone number of the office of U.S. Congressman Brad Ellsworth (D-Evansville), organizers led the group in a simultaneous calling spree. Those who got through to the office receptionists were audibly heard telling the workers they’d be fired in November. Others who got voicemail told Ellsworth he’d be unemployed come November’s election, cheering on those callers who told the crowd that staff had hung up on them.
Ellsworth, who represents the 8th District and much of the Wabash Valley, is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Sen. Evan Bayh. Ellsworth’s support for Obama’s health care legislation made him as much a target for the crowd as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Kristi Risk, a Republican candidate for Ellsworth’s U.S. House of Representatives seat, brought a dozen supporters wearing red-and-white shirts. The Spencer resident blasted illegal immigration and America’s “Muslim president,” promising a return to conservative Christian principles once Democrats lose their congressional majority.
“Our businesses are struggling. They have regulated our businesses to death,” she said to cheers.
Retired Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology professor Peter Priest took to the microphone, explaining to the crowd he spent a career teaching Russian. In that capacity, Priest said he visited the former Soviet Union a number of times during his tenure, and on one occasion he needed to use a hospital there.
“The Russian health care system isn’t worth a nickel,” he said, describing the recent health care legislation as a move in that direction. Despite having a serious heart condition at the time, Priest said he “took the first plane home” even though care in the Russian hospital would have been free to him. “The conditions were so terrible I just left,” he said.
A self-described “patriot,” Priest said 12 of his ancestors fought in the American Revolutionary War. But he said it’s the Russian Revolution he’s more concerned about today. When the communists took over that country, the first thing they did was attack the bankers, he said.
“Obama, Pelosi, Reid, these guys are doing the same thing. It’s a quiet revolution,” he said, describing a well-organized attempt at the highest levels of government to shift America away from a free-market, capitalist society. “Know your enemy and you shall be free. Forget about it, and you won’t.”
Terre Haute resident Larry Wilson hosted the event, playing Toby Keith’s “Angry American” and Charlie Daniels’ “In America” between speakers.
“Since it started last year,” he said of his involvement in the Tea Party movement. Organizers will host another event at 2 p.m. Saturday in Marshall, Ill., at 902 N. Michigan St. Locally, he said the group will probably do another event in Terre Haute on July 4.
Wilson said politicians in Washington, D.C., need to know how angry their constituents are at the direction in which the country is heading, and as he rallied the crowd for another speaker, he assured them the 2010 and 2012 elections will make that outrage known.
Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.
