Sarah Palin rallied the conservative tea party movement near the scene of its historical inspiration on Wednesday, telling Washington politicians that government should be working for the people, not the other way around.
More than 5,000 people assembled on Boston Common in the morning sunshine, just across town from Boston Harbor, where colonists upset about British taxation without government representation staged the original Tea Party in 1773.
Some 237 years later, their target is the administration of US President Barack Obama, government spending and the recent federal healthcare overhaul.
A festive mood filled the air. A band played patriotic music and hawkers sold yellow Gadsden flags emblazoned with the words “Don’t Tread on Me” and the image of a rattlesnake.
Tea partiers planned to meet for a final rally in Washington yesterday, coinciding with the federal tax-filing deadline. Local events are also planned in Oklahoma, Ohio and other locations.
Palin rallied the tea party movement near its historical roots with a message the day before Tax Day, the April 15 filing deadline for US tax returns.
Telling Washington politicians that government should be working for the people, not the other way around, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee accused Obama of overreaching with his US$787 billion stimulus program. She also criticized the administration’s healthcare, student loan and financial regulatory overhauls.
“Is this what their ‘change’ is all about?” Palin asked. “I want to tell ‘em, nah, we’ll keep clinging to our Constitution and our guns and religion — and you can keep the change.”
With husband Todd looking on, she added: “We need to cut taxes, so that our families can keep more of what they earn and produce and our mom-and-pops then, our small businesses, can reinvest according to our own priorities, and hire more people and let the private sector grow and thrive and prosper.”
Americans are paying lower taxes this year, but that is not expected to last. In the next few years, some increases will come as part of the national healthcare overhaul.
Palin, who served as Alaska’s governor for two years, played to the crowd as she trotted out a trademark line while lobbying for more domestic energy production.
“Yeah, let’s drill baby drill, not stall baby stall — you betcha,” she said.
One person in the crowd, 69-year-old John Arathuzik, said he had never been especially politically active until he saw the direction of the Obama administration.
“I feel like I can do one of two things — I can certainly vote in November, which I’ll do, and I can provide support for the peaceful protest about the direction this country is taking,” said Arathuzik, a veteran who clutched a copy of the Constitution.
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