Today I attended the Worcester Tea Party April 15th Tax Day Tea Party. It was a fantastic event (and just as an added bonus, it was a beautiful day!).

I have a few observations on the growth of the Tea Party. Reports of the death of the Tea Party are highly exaggerated–it is alive and doing well. A lot of the Tea Party is over the age of 40, but there is a younger group getting involved–one of the speakers today was a high school student speaking about a new program in her high school that involves students wearing a bracelet and tracking everything they eat and exactly how much exercise they get. That really does not sound like life in a free country to me. I hope to post an article about this program in her own words in the coming week. There was also a student from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who spoke. I am very impressed with the reasoning abilities of both of these young people as I did not give up my liberal ways until I was well into my twenties.

The Tea Party is not a monolithic group. The basic areas of agreement are smaller government, the repeal of Obamacare, and lower taxes. There is a strain of Ayn Rand worship that can also be found in some Tea Party members, but when you consider Ayn Rand’s perspective based on her background, that is probably not a bad thing. I remember reading ATLAS SHRUGGED in high school because the group of kids I hung around with was reading it, and we all thought it was wonderful. It amazes me that most of those friends grew up to become liberals. I guess our college education system in the late 1960’s was pretty powerful.

Anyway, the Tea Party event in Worcester was a great event. All ages were represented and it was a nice, friendly, well-mannered crowd. I will be there again next year!