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A Tammy Peep’s Report and Analysis on the State of the Tea Parties
By Ashley Matt

UPDATE: Since this writing, a Freedom Works activist named Mary Rakovich has taken over planning, and the Cape Coral Tea Party is apparently back on*

This past week, Tammy had me on her show to discuss the massive Orlando Tea Party on March 21st (which had over 5,000 in attendance) and the national Tea Party movement. She had been skeptical of what the ultimate point of these protests was, but I reported that the event I attended served several purposes. We discussed how it 1) provided a networking venue and booths to sign up with conservative groups, both national and local (such as Freedom Works and Americans for Tax Reform), 2) gave motivation and direction to many who were beginning to feel discouraged by the state of the government and the ignorance of the electorate by showing them thousands of defiant, proud, history-minded compatriots, and 3) how the event speakers explained that March 21st was just the beginning and that we must rededicate ourselves to activism for America, especially with the upcoming 2010 elections.

Particularly inspiring was the story of the prime organizer of the Orlando Tea Party, Lisa Feroli. Ms. Feroli does not work in politics or media; she is a mother and an office manager at a construction company who simply decided to take matters into her own hands. Using the publicity she got from boldly giving out her email address on a local talk radio show, she set out to organize a rally where at first a few hundred were expected, and ended up with a production that turned out over 5,000. Since the rally, Lisa and her organizing partners (her sisters and her friend Shelly) have been interviewed on national television including Fox and Friends and Glenn Beck where the story of “ordinary Moms making a difference” has taken on a life of its own. And with the upcoming Tax Day Tea Parties, the momentum of the Citizens Unite to Take Our Country Back concept has reached fever pitch.

But now we have heard news about what may become an obstacle to the budding cause. A ripple of outrage went across the internet Sunday with the story that a city council in Cape Coral, FL, cancelled an April 1st Tea Party at a public park because they expected too many people. After the announcement of the event at a city council meeting, a subsequent e-mail blast by the Republican Party and local media coverage led the local government to believe that more than 500 people would attend, which would require a permit and insurance. The woman planning the tea party was not willing to pay. No one offered any alternatives; she simply encouraged people to attend a nearby April 15th Tea Party.

The first lesson of this story is if conservatives are going to become grassroots activists, the would-be leaders need to take responsibility for all planning requirements and contingencies. Collective agitating may not be our cup of tea (I had to sneak that in somehow), but if we truly believe this is for the sake of the country, it is extremely important that we do this the right way. Immediately after reading the Cape Coral Tea Party story, so many questions came to mind: Why didn’t the organizer request donations and postpone the party until she got them? Why didn’t she move the event to private property? Why couldn’t the county Republican Party who stood to benefit from this ante up a couple hundred bucks for a permit and come out as heroes? Anything would have looked better than, “Yay, Tea Party! Oops, never mind.”

Perhaps some have gotten caught up in the romance of Lisa Feroli’s “ordinary citizen” organization and have begun to think that anyone can throw together something like that. But Lisa worked seven days a week around the clock for over a month, using every business contact, family member, local media outlet, and volunteer she could to achieve what she did. She got assistance from Bud Hedinger, the local radio talk show host who took her call announcing the event, who ended up being the M.C. and whose radio station helped promote it. She set up a website to give out information and request donations and sponsorships. In short, she saw the project through to a triumphant end by being prepared to take on all that came with it. It’s much easier to promise the world than it is to follow through on a small commitment, and an undertaking of this type is huge, not only because of the volume of people but also because of the importance of its impact.

Some perturbed blog commenters have opined that the permit requirement is in itself an infringement on First Amendment assembly rights, but the party planners and attendees have to stay focused. Yes, it is ironic that a protest against government intervention and taxation has to pay the government for a permit, which is a tax on the protest. But right now, our task is to have rallies that are as successful and enormous as possible. The mainstream media, finally unable to ignore these events, are doing their best to try to discredit the Tea Parties; the last thing we need is for them to report that a bunch of thugs illegally trespassed on city hall and blocked the streets. (If you doubt that would be the headline, remember that more people can tell you that Joe the Plumber is unlicensed than can paraphrase the question he asked Obama). So the cameras are on us, and we have to shine. Even through the filter of the media who is going to keep us “honest” by pointing out any flaw they can find, the Tea Parties must appear fun and rousing but sane. There are many skeptical patriots out there still watching to see if this is a serious model for action or a charade of expressionist chaos. For now, we have to play the media’s and the respective local governments’ little games because we are still in the stages of growing the list of supporters and getting the movement’s message out. We cannot let technicalities prematurely collapse it before our potential cohorts’ eyes.

That being said, this story may also foreshadow what will be a crossroads in the movement if it ever occurs. The national Tea Party networks as well as independent grassroots campaigners must be prepared for the circumstance where government on some level uses tactics to silence these protests. With how things have gone in the past eight weeks, and how more Tea Parties are rising, this is not an outlandish possibility. If it comes to being stifled by regulations, fines, or threats, the Tea Parties must defy these actions, or they are worthless. If that situation arises, it will be a test to see whether the leaders of the Tea Parties truly have the courage that our Founding Fathers did in the original Boston Tea Party and the Declaration of Independence or if they are just posing for attention and adulation. We the people must do everything we can within the legal parameters and maintaining the highest level of professionalism to be victorious. But if the very reason we are doing this–the overbearing government–tries to stop us, we must stand our ground and then advance. If they ban us, we have to show up anyway. Most of us pray that we will never have to do that. The thought of reaching the point where we resist the law is a frightening prospect to us regular, conservative, law-abiding folks. But if we really want the drastic shake-up we claim, and we look back at who else achieved such transformation–the Founders, abolitionists, and civil rights activists–they all did it, and we must be prepared to do the same.