Arizona Tea Party

I headed down to the State Capitol in downtown Phoenix after work today to attend the local tea party event. The crowd was enthusiastic but well behaved, as you might expect of the law-abiding, tax-paying types. Local news reports put the crowd at around 6,000. That feels about right to me. There were several speakers, including local politicians and some local radio personalities. It was kind of difficult to hear them more than 50 feet or so away as the audio equipment was set up with the speakers pointing in one direction, but most people didn't seem to mind. They were all admiring each other's signs.

This was my first protest and I just turned 50. I think it was the first time for a lot more too and I think we were all kind of pleasantly surprised that there were so many others with similar concerns that showed up. If it's true that the people that show up for protests are generally a small percentage of those that care about the issue at hand, the political class had better be paying attention or they'll be getting a nasty shock next election day. Here are a few photos from the event.