The 2010 Tea Party can be found at this link.

One of the signs from the April 15 Tea Party in Rochester, NY

The 40 who braved the cold in March for the Rochester NY Tea Party were joined today by over 1,000 more Americans fed up with politics as usual.

The Geneseo College Republican Club held the traditional tea dump at the April 15 Tea Party protest in Rochester, NY.

It’s sunny and in the 50’s with a brisk wind here in Rochester, NY. Three stops were planned for the Tea Party, a downtown park, the County Office Building and City Hall. About 600 at the park heard speakers and sang songs. They marched down a closed Main Street to the County Building for another rally and grew to around 1,000. By the time the marchers moved to City Hall, the crowd had swelled even further.

One of the signs from the April 15, 2009 Tea Party in Rochester, NY.

The crowd held all races, and every age group from toddlers to the elderly. The Geneseo College Republican Club marched with Ron Paul supporters, Libertarian Party folks, and ordinary Americans at their first protest.

No protest on behalf of liberty would be complete without a Liberty Belle cheering for freedom.

Bob Lonsberry on 1180, WHAM, is covering the event from his window seat on Main.

Rev. Tommy Davis, one of several persons of color at the April 15 Tea Party in Rochester, NY, addresses the crowd.

PRESS

• WXXI – PBS
• R News
• Democrat & Chronicle
• Channel 13 WHAM

Here are the collected photos.

Back when Andrew Sullivan was a conservative, he sent lots of traffic this way with a number of links. So, I feel a certain sadness with his change of perspective over the last few years.

Andrew wrote a piece titled The Tea Tantrum Movement for The Atlantic. It is his take on the Tea Party protest movement based on an admitted hour or so of on-line research.

He professes to have emerged from his rigorous course of research perplexed, bothered and bewildered.

He describes the movement as “some kind of amorphous, generalized rage on the part of those who were used to running the country and now don’t feel part of the culture at all”. He calls it “adolescent, unserious hysteria”.

Andrew makes the error that most liberals insist upon, that this is a movement of the Republican Party. Had he looked at the existing documentation of the hundreds of Tea Parties already held, he would have clearly seen that the movement is made up of some very average people, people who have never “run” the country. Perhaps he did look, but chose not to engage his intellect.

He even manages to make a serious historical error. The men who conducted the original Tea Party were NOT illegal immigrants, but Englishmen fed up with having their rights trampled by a distant government.

That is the bone of contention for Americans today. Our government has grown distant and is failing to respect our rights, the rights we have enjoyed from the founding of this nation.

Andrew needed to come up with a few hundred words for his paying gig, so he slapped something on the wall with the hope it would stick. It’s brown, and sticky, and smells. I would have hope for a little more reflection and honesty from a man who I once admired.

The 2010 Rochester Tea Party can be found at this link.

Click for photos from the March 11, 2009 Tea Party protest.

The Rochester, NY Tea Party protest held yesterday was a resounding success. Over 40 concerned citizens ranging in age from college students to seniors met at the Main Street bridge over the Genesee River to dump tea into the water.

Speakers detailed the historic Boston Tea Party and linked its message to current events. A short march was held, to the corner of Clinton and Main, in front of the convention center where NY Governor Patterson was appearing.

The “Fair Share” leftists were inside, out of the wind, pushing their message of punishing the successful with higher taxes. Outside, the Gadsden flag, “Don’t Tread On Me!” flew proudly along with the American flag. Signs protesting New York’s tax burden and the burden on future generations imposed by the stimulus package were held high, and passersby honked their horns in support.

Rochester Tea Party

News Coverage

• R News
• WHEC – NBC’s local affiliate
• WHAM – ABC’s local affiliate

Keep in mind that links to news stories will often expire with time or be placed into a pay-for-view part of the media’s site.

The next Rochester Tea Party is planned for April 15.