Having their tea and drinking it, too Yes! Weekly
While the Guilford County Commission wrangled with a difficult budget inside the Old Guilford County Courthouse last Thursday, conservative talk-radio personality Bill Flynn exhorted thousands of Tea Party supporters outside to let them hear “another full-throated roar of liberty and freedom…. On the count of three,” he said, “will you remind our leaders that we are here and we are not going to calm down?” So directed, the crowd gave a spirited yell. “We are going to put the fear of God into our leaders,” Flynn exulted.
The message of the Tea Party movement in North Carolina, boiled down to its essence and strained of its fringe elements, almost perfectly corresponds to the Republican Party, its standard bearers and zealous new candidates: outrage about the healthcare reform bill passed by President Obama and the congressional Democrats, and an embrace of low taxes and limited government. And yet the Tea Party has been holding the Grand Old Party at arms length and jealously guarding its independence.
